Martins, André <br/><br/>
Death Drive: Cause or Effect? 

 -  2006.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 76 
<br/><br/> The purpose of the present article is to rethink the reasons that took Freud to develop the metapsychological hypothesis of death instinct. In an attempt to analyze what is involved in this concept as well, in respect to metapsychology, it is about arguing whether the so called death instinct, as observed by Freud in his clinical practices, would be the cause of effects that would otherwise be unexplainable, or the effect of affective causes that are comprehensible and explainable. In the second case, the hypothesis of death instinct being the cause of clinical and phenomenal scenarios would finally constitute itself as an obstacle to the clinical comprehension of its affective causes, which would this way remain unnoticed.