Putin and the death drive

Peter Pomerantsev’s article about the explanatory power of Freud’s death drive regarding Putin’s conduct is generally right. But his analysis is perhaps too general, the death drive being always present and active, for it is part of life. The question is rather, what makes its role become so unilaterally prominent in Putin’s politics today? It would be a mistake, I believe, to ascribe such prevalence to something specifically « Russian ». It is more productive to consider the many ways in which the self-destructive drive is, in the present juncture, so strongly summoned by various historical, ideological, political and economic factors, converging towards what one could call a power fever, or a sexual drive for power, for Putin’s destructive sprees are certainly linked to some form of jouissance.

Russia has never  come to terms with it’s totalitarian past and Putin, for reasons that pertain to his personal equation, is cashing on the narcissistic blow that was the collapse of USSR. He thus cultivates the Great Russian ideology and capitalizes on national pride in response to a deep sense of humiliation. His personal ambition to exert absolute power, a combination of narcissistic omnipotence and the drive for control – Freud’s « Bemächtigungstrieb« ,-  derives indeed from the death drive but is shrouded in a more complex attire. The end result is a triad once described by Melanie Klein, and deflected for now towards the Ukrainian people (the Russian people being also an indirect victim):  triumph, contempt and control.

Dominique Scarfone, Montreal

Lettre envoyé au journal The Guardian, le 11 juin 2023