In the previous chapter – The libido as the core of the unconscious – I discussed the development of Freud's drive concept, in particular with respect to the libido/the sexual drive. We saw that in Freud's concept of the drive, a quantitative factor was included, although it was not measurable. Freud's idea that a quantity belongs to the drive was essentially there from the start, but it did not become explicated as the pressure of the drive until 1915. The constructed character of the drive concept thereby became more obvious. This pressure of the drive – that is, its energy and quantitative factor – is perhaps the most important part of Freud's metapsychology. Freud himself described it as the essence of the drives (Freud 1915c: 122).

The functioning of the psychical apparatus in accordance with the so-called ‘pleasure principle’ implies a striving towards immediate discharge of energy. This striving can be described in line with the Nirvana principle – that is, a discharge of drive energy towards the zero point, an extinguishing of psychical life. This way of functioning for the psyche/the unconscious in accordance with Freud's thinking can also be captured by means of a number of other important concepts. In Laplanche's interpretation of the death drive, it is argued that the death drive is the most extreme expression of the discharge of the libido. The death drive is sexuality when it is the least civilized and socialized.