Psychoanalysis and Biology

Taking as a starting point the Freudian concept of death drive and the questions raised to it by Wilhelm Reich, several elements of psychoanalytic theory are examined under the focus of biological knowledge. Among the themes approached are the pleasure principle, aggression, human nature, the concept of drive and the relation between mind and body, the property or impropriety of making such connection between psychoanalysis and biology, among others. For those who judge valid the dialogue between these two fields, the discussion points to reformulation paths of several aspects of psychoanalytic theory, adapting it to the advance of knowledge in the areas of neurobiology, primatology, ethology, evolutionary psychology and other branches of biology.