Neuroscience and the Death Drive - The Nature of Symptoms, from Formulation to Treatment

In this book, Adrian Perkel seeks to expand upon Freud's theory of the death drive by locating it within modern neuroscience, arguing for the centrality of the aggressive drive in the formation of mind, and the genesis of symptoms and psychopathology.

List of contents

1. The Character of Symptoms 2. The Multiplicity of Subjectivity 3. The Ascendance of Libido and Psychic Conflicts 4. Masturbation: Somatic Self-engagement 5. Anxiety 6. Depression 7. Sexual Dysfunction 8. Addiction 9. Eating Disorders 10. Personality and its Disorders: Derivations and Deviations 11. On Treatment Implications

About the author

Adrian Perkel is a registered practising clinical psychologist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has been lecturing, writing, supervising other professionals, and practising psychotherapy since 1989. His work is deeply informed by psychoanalysis and neuroscience. He is the author of Unlocking the Nature of Human Aggression: A Psychoanalytic and Neuroscientific Approach (2023).

Product details

• Authors: Adrian Perkel
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 24.07.2025
• EAN: 9781041045885
• ISBN: 978-1-041-04588-5
• No. of pages: 304
• Series: The Routledge Neuropsychoanalysis Series
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Applied psychology; PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / General, Psychotherapy, Neurosciences, Psychoanalytical and Freudian psychology, Psychoanalytical theory (Freudian psychology), PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis