Hamm's obsession with his storytelling which is repeated on and on in the play accounts for his
repetition compulsion which Freud attributes to death drive.
(25) In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud initially classified
repetition compulsions with the ego instincts, those connected to self-preservation; and because the ego instincts could not be aligned with the pleasure principle he came to see them in terms of the death instinct.
Derrida proves that the common points between deconstruction and psychoanalysis have to do with "the
repetition compulsion," which means that the masters' discourse is always waiting for numerous re-readings.
Williams's convincing treatment of what he aptly terms "the circular
repetition compulsion of ideology" (134) helps to elucidate Blake's experiment with historical narrative in terms of the ideological limitations to revolutionary progress.
He shows not only the source of dysfunction in the secrets, blame, and denial in that family system, but also how that family began to break the bonds of the
repetition compulsion by cultivating openness, intimacy, and emotional expressiveness.
With this primary emphasis on language, sexuality, and the
repetition compulsion, the volume eschews strict chronological or national organization, and instead fits its sequence of essays on English and Italian authors into four thematic categories: "Faking It: Sex, Class, and Gender Mobility," "Ogling: The Circulation of Power," "Loving and Loathing: The Economics of Subjection," and "Dreaming On: Uncanny Encounters."
In his speculative final essay on the perversion, "The Economic Problem of Masochism," Freud posits the existence of a primary masochism, a drive with its origin in the death instinct, a consequence of the
repetition compulsion, and thus an independent, automatically operating regulatory principle.
The five new works presented this season confirmed that
repetition compulsion continues to plague Feld, keeping his company at an artistic standstill.
In past works such as Family Viewing, Speaking Parts and The Adjuster, Egoyan has invented characters for whom making and watching videos is a kind of
repetition compulsion. They love so fiercely through the viewfinder that they lose everything.
The latter part of the book comes to a reconsideration of the
repetition compulsion and subjective world view and introduces the concept of empathy-with-oneself.