[Repetition and fear of dying]

In this paper a revision is made of the qualifications of Repetition (R) in Freuds work, i.e. its being at the service of the Pleasure Principle and, beyond it, the binding of free energy due to trauma. Freud intends to explain with this last concept the "fort-da" and the traumatic dreams (obsessively reiterated self-reproaches may be added to them). The main thesis of this work is that R. is not only a defense against the recollection of the ominous past (as in the metaphorical deaths of abandonment and desertion) but also a way of maintaining life and identify fighting against the inescapable omninous future (known but yet experienced), i.e. our own death. Some forms of R. like habits, identificatory behaviors and sometimes even magic, are geared to serve the life instinct. A literary illustration shows this desperate fight.