defusionn.
/diːˈfjuːʒən/ Psychiatry.
A reversal of the normal fusion of the instincts; spec. a regression from the normal fusion of the life and death instincts.
ΚΠ
1927 J. Riviere tr. S. Freud Ego & Id iv. 57 Once we have admitted the conception of a fusion of the two classes of instincts with each other, the possibility of a ‘defusion’ of them forces itself upon us. The sadistic component of the sexual instinct would be a classical example of instinctual fusion..and the perversion in which sadism has made itself independent would be typical of defusion.
1945 J. C. Flügel Man, Morals & Society viii. 101 The process of defusion, which allows the death instinct to carry on its dread work without the saving grace of love.
1946 Mind 55 83 Such processes as..the ‘fusion’ and subsequent ‘defusion’ of the various attitudes of the self.
1955 J. Riviere in M. Klein New Directions in Psycho-analysis xiv. 360 They are both situations in which a measure of defusion of instincts has taken place; for the time being either Eros or Thanatos has gained some victory.
1959 G. Kennedy in S. Hook Psychoanalysis 278 A partial defusion of these two normally fused sets of original instincts.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1927