Rossella Valdrè is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and International Psychoanalytical Association. Her interests include Freudian metapsychology, as well as cinema and psychoanalysis and their extension to the world of culture and society.

"Without reducing literary texts to mere clinical cases, Dr. Rossella Valdré draws on their unique connection to life to investigate the elusive and problematic concept of the death drive. The various literary references interspersed in her book – from Mann to Ibsen and Szymborska – are handled with philological tact. Valdré’s extensive discussion of Pasolini and of a number of influential 20th Century American writers (Fitzgerald and Yates, among many others) offers an original exploration of the age-long relationship between creativity and self-destruction and, ultimately, is a forceful reminder of the power of art."-Giovanni Bassi, doctoral candidate in Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (SSN), Italy"Although the death drive as conceptualized by Freud can hardly be accepted today because it was founded on a form of biologism untenable in light of neuroscience, it has crucial heuristic value for assessing clinical and social phenomena. With great depth and by citing literature and art, Rossella Valdrè shows that the death drive is identified with psychical disinvestment. The effects of this destructive drive are most visible in social phenomena. Terrorism represents the clearest example of this aspect of the human mind. Thus, we are witnessing a regression to the social functioning Freud describes when discussing the Primitive Horde."-Francesco Conrotto, training psychoanalyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Association

• Foreword by Laura AmbrosianoIntroduction: The silent drive: death inside life Chapter 1: In theory Chapter 2: In the clinicChapter 3: In artChapter 4: Contemporaneity: is it really the age of sad passions? Conclusions

Rossella Valdrè is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and International Psychoanalytical Association. Her interests include Freudian metapsychology, as well as cinema and psychoanalysis and their extension to the world of culture and society.

"Without reducing literary texts to mere clinical cases, Dr. Rossella Valdré draws on their unique connection to life to investigate the elusive and problematic concept of the death drive. The various literary references interspersed in her book – from Mann to Ibsen and Szymborska – are handled with philological tact. Valdré’s extensive discussion of Pasolini and of a number of influential 20th Century American writers (Fitzgerald and Yates, among many others) offers an original exploration of the age-long relationship between creativity and self-destruction and, ultimately, is a forceful reminder of the power of art."-Giovanni Bassi, doctoral candidate in Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (SSN), Italy"Although the death drive as conceptualized by Freud can hardly be accepted today because it was founded on a form of biologism untenable in light of neuroscience, it has crucial heuristic value for assessing clinical and social phenomena. With great depth and by citing literature and art, Rossella Valdrè shows that the death drive is identified with psychical disinvestment. The effects of this destructive drive are most visible in social phenomena. Terrorism represents the clearest example of this aspect of the human mind. Thus, we are witnessing a regression to the social functioning Freud describes when discussing the Primitive Horde."-Francesco Conrotto, training psychoanalyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Association

• Foreword by Laura AmbrosianoIntroduction: The silent drive: death inside life Chapter 1: In theory Chapter 2: In the clinicChapter 3: In artChapter 4: Contemporaneity: is it really the age of sad passions? Conclusions

Rossella Valdrè is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and International Psychoanalytical Association. Her interests include Freudian metapsychology, as well as cinema and psychoanalysis and their extension to the world of culture and society.

"Without reducing literary texts to mere clinical cases, Dr. Rossella Valdré draws on their unique connection to life to investigate the elusive and problematic concept of the death drive. The various literary references interspersed in her book – from Mann to Ibsen and Szymborska – are handled with philological tact. Valdré’s extensive discussion of Pasolini and of a number of influential 20th Century American writers (Fitzgerald and Yates, among many others) offers an original exploration of the age-long relationship between creativity and self-destruction and, ultimately, is a forceful reminder of the power of art."-Giovanni Bassi, doctoral candidate in Literature, Art and History in Medieval and Modern Europe, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (SSN), Italy"Although the death drive as conceptualized by Freud can hardly be accepted today because it was founded on a form of biologism untenable in light of neuroscience, it has crucial heuristic value for assessing clinical and social phenomena. With great depth and by citing literature and art, Rossella Valdrè shows that the death drive is identified with psychical disinvestment. The effects of this destructive drive are most visible in social phenomena. Terrorism represents the clearest example of this aspect of the human mind. Thus, we are witnessing a regression to the social functioning Freud describes when discussing the Primitive Horde."-Francesco Conrotto, training psychoanalyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Association

• Foreword by Laura AmbrosianoIntroduction: The silent drive: death inside life Chapter 1: In theory Chapter 2: In the clinicChapter 3: In artChapter 4: Contemporaneity: is it really the age of sad passions? Conclusions