ENTROPY AND THE DEATH DRIVE: WHY HUMANITY CAN'T STOP DESTROYING ITSELF

“THERE IS NO LATER.

THIS IS LATER.”

(CORMAC MCCARTHY, THE ROAD)

ENTROPY AND THE DEATH DRIVE:

WHY HUMANITY CAN'T STOP

DESTROYING ITSELF

WITH DAVID MORGAN

PSYCHOANALYST

FRONTLINE CLUB

FRIDAY 30TH JAN 2026

As Cormac McCarthy wrote in The Road, “There is no later. This is later.” Hallam’s work embodies that conviction that the catastrophe is already upon us, and only courageous collective action offers any hope of renewal.

Psychoanalysis has long understood that destruction is not only external but internal. In this discussion, Roger Hallam and David Morgan explore how the death instinct and psychic entropy manifest in political life, capitalism, and climate collapse.

Are we witnessing an entropic culture a civilisation organised around repetition, depletion, and disavowal?

What forms of protest, mourning, or radical love might resist this pull toward psychic and planetary extinction?

Roger Hallam

is a British environmental activist best known as a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

Originally an organic farmer in South Wales, Hallam turned to activism after experiencing climate-related crop failures. He completed a PhD at King’s College London on civil disobedience and social change, and became a leading strategist and spokesperson for non-violent direct action.

Hallam advocates mass civil disobedience as the most effective means to force government action on climate breakdown. He has played a central role in shaping the tactics and visibility of contemporary climate movements, emphasising disruption, citizens’ assemblies, and democratic reform as paths toward systemic change.

He has been imprisoned several times for his role in organising protests and continues to write and campaign for radical climate action and democratic renewal.

David Morgan

is a psychoanalyst. Chair of Political Mind at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Editor and author of several books on politics and psychoanalysis. He works in private practice and the NHS.