Freud never found the death drive’s form because he stripped destruction of plasticity

Evidence

When Freud speaks of a representative for the death drive, he is seeking the form of this drive. He never finds this form, however, because he deprives destruction of its own plasticity. Sadism and masochism—which, once again, do not purely and simply inhabit a space beyond the pleasure principle—are quite far from such living figures of death. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 4097

Categorization

• XREF: Core of Malabou’s critique — Freud deprives destruction of its own plasticity, so the death drive never gets a form. Central to the debate with psychoanalysis the reader is tracking. — connects to: Freud defined plasticity as libidinal mobility plus psychic indestructibility — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 547; Plasticity is suppleness that is neither passion nor passivity — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 290; Freud holds all drives are mediated through images, never pure — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 201

Broader Connections

• Freud defined plasticity as libidinal mobility plus psychic indestructibility #qualifies (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 547
• Plasticity is suppleness that is neither passion nor passivity #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 290