FFW (5 min; 10 sentences OR drawing): Imagining Instincts
Imagine Eros and Thanatos as characters in a mythological story. What do they look like? How do they interact?
How do these personifications reflect Freud’s theories?
Exploring Freud’s Dual Drives (10 minutes)
Eros: The drive for connection, creation, and life-sustaining actions.
Thanatos: The drive for aggression, destruction, and entropy.
Examples: the rebuilding of societies after war (Eros following Thanatos), or the destructive upheavals in art movements like Dadaism
Dadaist art was satirical and nonsensical, and emphasized the illogical, irrational, and absurd. Dadaist artists often used collage, montage, and assemblage to create their art.
Text Explosion (5 min)
Analyse a key passage from Chapter 6 that encapsulates the tension between Eros and Thanatos.
Annotate the text, pulling out resonant phrases and connections
Share out
Group Work: Tracing the Drives in Civilization (15 minutes)
Divide students into small groups. Each group is given a contemporary or historical scenario to analyse through the lens of Freud’s dual drives:
Art and Protest: How do art movements (e.g., street art, music) reflect the interplay of Eros and
Thanatos?
War and Peace: How do global conflicts demonstrate the destructive and creative cycles Freud
describes?
Technology and Social Media: How does innovation simultaneously connect and divide people?
Groups identify evidence from Freud’s text and brainstorm connections to their scenario, preparing a brief presentation or visual representation of their findings.
Reflective Writing: Personalizing Freud’s Ideas
FFW (5 min; 10 sentences): Describe a moment in your life or in the world around you where creation and destruction seemed intertwined. How might Freud’s ideas help you understand this experience?