Is the Concept of the Death Drive Essential When Speaking of Trauma?

I put my title in the form of a question initially; that was because there is something about this Freudian concept of the death drive that always raises a question. Do you 'believe' in it or not? Do we really have to think about it, can't we just take the rest of Freud's writings without having to consider the importance of Beyond the Pleasure Principle? [1] The death drive is a point of doubt for many analysts; they can't quite stomach it.…