The psychological phenomenon of heroic behavior: a psychoanalytic approach

The article discusses the “origin” of heroic behavior at different levels of the unconscious (collective and individual). We investigate the unconscious motivation, which is realized in the actions of the subject, due to the desire for death on the material of different discourses: scientific, artistic, military. Revealed contradictions between the unconscious and realizable ideas of heroism. The main provisions of the theoretical part of the preliminary studies are confirmed by representations of the heroic behavior of the students (the people who chose the profession out of the heroic). Most respondents referred to the characters personalities who died during the execution of duty - 26 % of people, honestly performing their duty, capable of saving other people -9 %, ready to sacrifice themselves in an effort to save the lives of others - 35 % do not believe in the existence of heroes - 2 %; deny the heroism of modern life in 18 % of each situational willingness to admit to the heroic deed of 5 %. The concepts of heroism in one degree or another relate to the actions or activities involving a risk to life and aimed at overcoming difficulties in order to save others’ lives, the prosperity of the country, to protect the homeland.