What is libido?
Libido, Latin for "desire," was Freud's term for the psychic energy of the sexual drive. "Sexual" here is broad: it covers pleasure from the body in general, such as sucking, elimination and touch, not only adult sexual activity. In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) Freud argued that children too have sexual impulses ("infantile sexuality"), the starting point of libido theory. The wider structure of psychoanalysis is covered in Freud's psychoanalytic theory.
Psychosexual stages
Freud held that the body zone where libido concentrates shifts with age, giving five stages:
- Oral (about 0–1): pleasure from sucking and feeding.
- Anal (about 1–3): pleasure from holding and releasing; toilet training brings the first experience of control and rules.
- Phallic (about 3–6): interest in the genitals and the Oedipus complex; identification with the same-sex parent forms the superego.
- Latency (6 to puberty): sexual interest is repressed and energy goes into school and peers.
- Genital (puberty on): satisfaction in mature love relationships and work.
Fixation and personality
If needs at a stage are too frustrated or too indulged, part of the libido stays there, a fixation. Oral fixation was linked to overeating, smoking and dependency; anal fixation to excessive orderliness and stinginess (the anal-retentive character) or the opposite, messiness. Returning under stress to behavior of a fixated stage is regression.
How the concept changed
- Ego libido and object libido: in "On Narcissism" (1914) Freud distinguished libido directed at oneself (narcissism) from libido directed at other people or objects.
- Life and death instincts: in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) he recast his theory as a dual-instinct model of life instincts (Eros), which include libido, and death instincts (Thanatos) directed toward destruction and aggression.
- Sublimation: a defense in which libidinal energy is redirected into socially valued activities such as art and scholarship.
Jung and later revisions
In Transformations and Symbols of the Libido (1912) Carl Jung treated libido not as sexual but as general psychic energy driving all mental activity, a disagreement that helped end his collaboration with Freud.
Psychoanalysis then shifted from drives toward relationships. Fairbairn argued that libido seeks objects (people) rather than pleasure, and Erikson reframed the psychosexual stages as psychosocial stages centered on social relationships. Bowlby's attachment theory, which explains the infant–caregiver bond as a search for security rather than drive pleasure, belongs to the same movement.
Cash Note
청년문화예술패스 하반기 추가 발급 — 2006·2007년생 최대 20만 원, 11월 30일까지
73 readers so far
Make Korean friends & friends from around the world learning Korean
Chat easily with people from many countries who love Korea.
Beauty UP
대학생 가성비 기초 루틴 — 꼭 필요한 3단계만 남기기
209 readers so far
Psych UP
카톡 온도차 테스트｜답장은 차가운데 마음은 뜨거울 수도
5 people have taken it so far
Criticism
- Concepts such as libido and fixation are hard to observe or measure, so the theory is difficult to test scientifically.
- Freud generalized about child development largely from adult patients' recollections.
- The theory overemphasizes sexuality, and ideas such as the Oedipus complex have been criticized as male-centered.
- Even so, the idea that early experience shapes personality left a lasting mark on developmental psychology and counseling.
References
- Freud, S. (1905). Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie [Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]. Leipzig: Deuticke.
- Jung, C. G. (1912). Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido [Transformations and Symbols of the Libido]. Leipzig: Deuticke.
- Freud, S. (1914). Zur Einführung des Narzißmus [On Narcissism: An Introduction]. Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, 6, 1–24.
- Freud, S. (1920). Jenseits des Lustprinzips [Beyond the Pleasure Principle]. Leipzig: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag.
- Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1952). Psychoanalytic Studies of the Personality. London: Tavistock/Routledge & Kegan Paul.