In Vienna, Modernism had three main characteristics. The first was the new view of the human mind as being largely irrational by nature.... they questioned what constitutes reality, what lies below the surface appearances of people, objects, and events.... They discovered that... people harbor not only unconscious erotic feelings, but also unconscious aggressive impulses that are directed against themselves as well as against others. Freud later called these dark impulses the death instinct.

The Age of Insight (2012)