This text is a reflection on the “quest for death” in contemporary jihadism. According to Olivier Roy, this quest would be the fundamental element of the project of the younger generation of terrorists. To understand the phenomenon, texts by Freud and Hélène L’Heuillet are first analyzed. It turns out that terrorism was not previously associated with the will to die, but rather with the will to fight at the risk of dying, which is different. This approach is problematic in some respects. For it is also true that the quest for death is a constant of the “depths” of the human psyche and that, in this sense, it is not surprising to see it reappear within terrorism and jihadism. It is necessary to recall, with Monique Lauret, the importance of using with caution the Freudian hypothesis of the death drive without forgetting the special case of women volunteering to die in jihad.