The category 'libido' as a means of describing the functioning of sexuality in normal and pathological conditions

Freud and sex (18+)

Candidate of Cultural Studies, Associate Professor of the Department of History and Theory of Culture of the Department of Sociocultural Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities
Oksana Moroz - about the myth that has developed around Freud's research.
The myth of Sigmund Freud's teachings as a theory built on explaining any causes and prerequisites for human detail by referring exclusively to sexual experience is incredibly tenacious. And the name of Freud himself, despite the wide distribution in modern society of various popular scientific manuals on psychology and psychoanalysis (or perhaps precisely because of them?), is quite often associated with the discussion of sexual desires and problems. Of course, Freud himself is partly to blame for this development of events, but now turning to him as an apologist for the bodily emancipation of society is a little ridiculous.

A careful study of Freud's works makes it possible to realize: the founder of psychoanalysis devoted only part of his theory to discovering connections between unconscious mental processes that occur in accordance with drives (including sexual ones) that are not always controlled by a person and all other everyday practices. No less significant were his studies of the socio-cultural features of society.

Sigmund Freud. (zen.yandex.ru)

Thus, in many respects it is to Freud that we owe modern ideas about how the mechanisms of psychological defense and the associated cognitive, i.e., cognitive processes are structured. In 1893, working together with Dr. Joseph Breuer, he proposed that specialists focus on violations of the defense mechanisms of repression. In the book “On the Psychological Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena,” Breuer and Freud argued that hysterics and neurotics (which were a significant part of their patients) mostly suffer from memories, or more precisely, from the inability to remember some fragment of the repressed (something ignored or forgotten ), and perhaps the most important one.

The source of such a state is always, according to the authors, extremely strong excitation from the outside. However, if unconscious protection from external challenges is adequate, then the disease does not develop; on the contrary, the possibility of redirecting mental energy to the realization of some socially acceptable goals opens up. This is how sublimation works, which, based on this example, is not always associated with libido or sex, but almost always acts as a stress relief mechanism necessary for a person. In case of its absence or insufficiency, our psyche creates extremely strong compensation, which is expressed in the formation of borderline or even critical states. As a rule, they are accompanied by a mass of unpleasant symptoms, primarily associated with obsessive memories of that very painful, traumatic situation.

In systematizing lectures 1916 - 1917. Freud, who observed the transformation and spread of hysteria, neuroses and other disorders during the First World War, came to the conclusion that any severe shock experienced, for which a person could not be prepared either culturally or socially, provokes disturbances in his mental health and the development of psychological injuries. In the future, without proper therapy, such a victim may experience symptoms of PTSD throughout his life - post-traumatic stress disorder, which often manifests itself in acute attacks that occur when encountering the so-called. trigger - a phenomenon/object/situation reminiscent of the experience. Literally the most insignificant gesture, sound, flash of light can cause reactivation of a traumatic memory, which leads to repeated violations of psychological well-being, psychosomatic disorders, etc. Fortunately, PTSD is now included in the ICD 10 list (an international classification of diseases developed and approved by the World Health Organization health care) and is successfully treated - not without the use of psychoanalysis.

However, Freud's role in recognizing the painful nature of traumatic stress and the need for its treatment goes far beyond the scope of such a field of knowledge as psychology. In an attempt to understand the peculiarities of the human psyche and, first of all, those experiences that cannot be symbolized and reified, psychiatrist and philosopher Jacques Lacan proclaimed in the 1950s. The motto is “back to Freud!” As a result of his efforts and interest in this issue on the part of other representatives of social and humanitarian knowledge, such a direction of research as TraumaStudies appeared, whose experts are engaged in the analysis of painful experiences and repressed things - but not in specific patients, but in entire communities.

Stages of formation and development of libido

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LIBIDO (lat. libido - attraction, desire, desire; synonym - sexual desire): the desire for sexual intimacy. According to 3. Freud, it is localized in various bodily zones, determining the phases of psychosexual development. Being closely connected with consciousness, libido also undergoes a long-term individual evolution, gradually becoming more complex and improving. There are several stages of its formation.

The conceptual stage is entirely associated with the formation of consciousness in the child, is devoid of sensory coloring and has nothing to do with libido as such at this stage (therefore it is also referred to as dolibidous). At this stage, the child realizes that all the people around him are divided not only into boys and girls, but also into more capacious categories - men and women (mom and dad, grandfather and grandmother, aunt and uncle). The child gradually realizes the fact of dioeciousness and identifies himself as one of the two sexes. Girls develop elements of sexual behavior - playing with dolls, daughters and mothers, home.

The romantic stage in young men is characterized by fantasies in which imaginary deeds are performed in honor of the idealized object of first love. Girls have a clearly visible desire to please, to attract attention, fantasies appear, the main content of which is selfless care on the part of a beautiful and brave “knight”. Attempts to destroy these illusions with everyday teachings on the part of relatives or by shortening the distance on the part of a young man are perceived as dirty and offensive. The characteristic features of this stage are a high intensity of feelings with elements of sweet tragedy, self-denial and sacrifice, conviction in the uniqueness of what is being experienced (no one has ever experienced anything like this!). The significance of this stage in the formation of libido is the elevation of the physiological instinct to truly human love. In contrast to the rapid development of sexual libido in a boy, the features of the romantic stage in girls can persist for a long time, closely intertwined with erotic elements.

The erotic stage is expressed in the desire for tenderness and caresses (verbal and tactile). This stage, which for a long time determines female sexuality, in men is quickly replaced by the need for sexual release. Girls gradually develop an exciting interest in erotic situations, fantasies acquire a more sensual character, the eroticism of touch, the sublime beauty of the body, and the desire to become an object of courtship emerge in them more and more clearly. The experience of falling in love for the first time fills the erotic stage with vivid and unforgettable feelings and hopes, many of which are not destined to come true.

The sexual stage occurs against the background of specific emotions of a lower order, which, having arisen during puberty, are then supported by constant stimulation by external secretion products. These manifestations usually exceed the individual physiological norm (the so-called youthful hypersexuality

), are accompanied by a number of uncontrollable phenomena - curiosity about sexual topics, spontaneous erections with pronounced sexual arousal, nocturnal emissions and masturbation, which sometimes gives rise to mental conflicts in young men between established moral and ethical attitudes and the assessment of their own “I”. In women, this stage is characterized by the emergence of a desire for intimacy and the ability to experience orgasm and usually occurs after the start of regular sexual activity. Rapid pubertal development in women is accompanied by an earlier and more intense manifestation of erotic libido, but without regular sexual activity or masturbation, sexual libido rarely arises. A. M. Svyadoshch notes a lack of sexual libido throughout life in 22.4% of the women he examined, and in most cases such a delay is associated with suppression of sexual feelings as a result of defects in upbringing or incompetence of the sexual partner.

The stage of mature sexuality is characterized by a harmonious relationship between conceptual, sublimely romantic, erotic and sexually sensual elements with the entire system of moral and ethical values ​​and personality orientation. With the achievement of maturity, a man gains complete control over his sexual behavior and, in contrast to the sexual stage, successfully suppresses sexual tendencies when their manifestation does not correspond to the time and circumstances, and also contradicts his personal moral and ethical guidelines. Most women are characterized by cyclical fluctuations in the intensity of sexual desire, and the increase in libido in most women occurs during the paramenstrual period of life.

During the period of formation of sexuality, an important role is played by the media (television, cinema), as well as educational institutions: kindergarten, school. If the severity of libido tends to increase as the body grows and forms, reaching its highest point in the period of 25-35 years, then the direction of libido, as a rule, finally stabilizes by 5-7 years.

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Categories of “unconscious”, “libido”, “ego” in the theory of S. Freud.

In this matter we can talk about Freudianism.

Freudianism (English: Freudianism, also called “orthodox psychoanalysis” and “Freudianism-Lacanism” (after the names of the authors: Freud and Jacques Lacan)) is a direction in depth psychology, named after the Austrian psychologist S. Freud. Freudianism is the first and one of the most influential schools of thought in psychoanalysis.

The unconscious is a part of the human psyche that differs in volume, content and principles of functioning from consciousness. In topographic theory, the unconscious is considered one of the systems of the mental apparatus. After the emergence of a three-component model of consciousness (“It”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), the unconscious is expressed exclusively using an adjective, that is, it reflects a mental quality that is equally characteristic of each of the three structures of the psyche.

Freud believed that the unconscious is the area in which any mental process initially arises, only after being there is it able to move into the sphere of consciousness. The scientist compared the sphere of the unconscious with a “large hallway” (containing all mental processes), and consciousness with an adjoining small room, a salon. On the threshold between the two “rooms” there is a certain “guard” who decides what to let through from the front to the salon and what not. Even if a certain process ends up in the “salon room,” it will not necessarily become conscious, since the “salon” is divided by a small partition into two zones: immediate consciousness and preconsciousness. Thus, Freud distinguished two types of the unconscious - latent (hidden) and repressed. The latent unconscious is located in the area of ​​preconscious and is capable of becoming part of consciousness without external effort, and the repressed unconscious requires analytical work to move into the area of ​​consciousness.

Freud's understanding of the unconscious was built on several basic theoretical principles:

1. identifying the psyche with consciousness is inappropriate, since it violates mental continuity and gives rise to difficult-to-solve difficulties of psychophysical parallelism;
2. the introduction of the structure of the unconscious is explained by the presence of a mass of gaps in the data of consciousness, the understanding of which is fundamentally impossible without the assumption of the existence of processes other than conscious ones;
3. the unconscious is an obligatory and integral part responsible for the processes occurring in the human psyche;
4. the basis and essence of the unconscious are inherited mental formations;
5. any mental act is born in the unconscious and can either remain there or move into the realm of consciousness if it does not encounter resistance;
6. the unconscious is a unique mental system, distinguished by special principles of functioning and expression; the laws of functioning of the unconscious are different from the laws by which consciousness works;
7. processes occurring in the unconscious enjoy greater freedom compared to conscious ones;
8. the unconscious is cognizable only indirectly - through the analysis of unconscious material translated into consciousness;
9. the unconscious has special properties: the primary process (the language of the unconscious, functioning in accordance with the principle of pleasure, that is, irrational, impulsive and primitive), activity, absence of contradictions, flow outside of time, replacement of physical reality with mental

The main features of the unconscious, according to Freud:

1. the content of the unconscious is a representation of drives;
2. the content of the unconscious is regulated by primary processes, in particular, condensation and displacement;
3. fueled by the energy of drives, the contents of the unconscious tend to return to consciousness, manifesting themselves in behavior (return of repressed content), but in fact they can appear in the preconscious only in a form distorted by the censorship of the “Super-Ego”;
4. Children's desires are often recorded in the unconscious

Libido (Latin libido - lust, desire, passion, aspiration) is one of the basic concepts of psychoanalysis developed by Freud. It denotes sexual desire or sexual instinct. This term is necessary to describe the various manifestations of sexuality. Freud equated libido with Plato's Eros and defined it as the energy of attraction to everything that is covered by the word “love”: sexual love, self-love (narcissism), love for parents and children, universal love of humanity, etc. The term “libido” is used by Freud when explaining the causes of mental disorders, neurosis, and also to describe the course of mental development of a normal person, his scientific and artistic activity, sublimation.

In the process of growing up, the shift in the area of ​​concentration of libido energy throughout the body determines the development of a person.

In Freud's theory of psychosexual development, the following stages are defined:

• oral phase (from birth to 1.5 - 3 years) - pleasure from sucking the mother's breast;
• anal phase (from 3 to 5 years) - associated with the pleasant sensations received by the child during the excretory activity of the colon and bladder;
• phallic phase (from 5 to 7 years) - sexual exploration, the formation of the Oedipus complex in boys and the Electra complex in girls;
• latent stage (from 7 to 12 years);
• genital stage (from 12 to 18 years).

Disturbances in the development of libido, according to Freud, lead to mental disorders. Libido underlies all behavior that results in pleasure.

Ego (Latin ego - “I”) - according to psychoanalytic theory, that part of the human personality that is recognized as “I” and is in contact with the outside world through perception. The ego plans, evaluates, remembers, and otherwise responds to the influence of the physical and social environment

The ego is, along with the Id (It) and the Super-Ego (Super-Ego), one of the three psychological entities proposed by Sigmund Freud to describe the dynamics of the human psyche. The ego, according to Freud, carries out executive functions, being an intermediary between the external and internal world, as well as between the Id and the Super-Ego. It provides continuity but consistency in behavior by providing a personal point of reference whereby events of the past (stored in memory) are related to events of the present and future (represented by foresight and imagination). The ego does not coincide with either the psyche or the body, although bodily sensations form the core of the individual's early experience. The ego, having achieved development, is capable of changing throughout life, especially under the influence of threat, illness and changes in living conditions.

As the individual develops, the ego differentiates and the superego develops. The superego includes inhibitions and control of instinctual impulses through the adoption of parental and social standards. And thus, a moral conflict arises, which is necessary for the growth and maturation of the individual. The ego plays the role of an intermediary between the superego and the id by creating defense mechanisms.

Progress from immediate reaction to controlled behavior, from prelogical to rational thinking, occurs slowly and occurs in many successive stages throughout childhood. Even after reaching physical maturity, people differ significantly among themselves in the forms and effectiveness of ego activity. This important quality was called "ego strength" by Freud. A person with a “strong ego” is characterized by the following characteristics: he is objective in his assessments of the world around him and himself; its activities are organized over a longer period of time, so that planning and routine are possible; he is able to carry out decisions and, without hesitation, choose from available alternatives; he does not blindly obey his aspirations and can direct them in a socially useful direction; he is able to withstand immediate pressures from the physical and social environment, reflecting and choosing his own course. On the other hand, an individual with a “weak ego” is more similar to a child: his behavior is impulsive and determined by the moment; perception of reality and oneself is distorted; he achieves less success in productive work because his energy is spent defending distorted and unrealistic ideas about himself; he may suffer from neurotic symptoms.

Essays on the psychology of sexuality (collection)Text

In other cases, a number of symbolic associations, mostly unconscious, lead to the replacement of an object with a fetish. These associations cannot always be explained with certainty. The leg represents an ancient sexual symbol already in myths[15], fur owes its fetish role to association with hair on mons Veneris (mountain of Venus); however, this symbolism appears to be independent of childhood sexual experiences[16].

B) FIXATION OF PRELIMINARY SEXUAL GOALS

The emergence of new intentions

All external and internal conditions that make it difficult or delay the achievement of a normal sexual goal (impotence, the high cost of a sexual object, the danger of sexual intercourse) support, of course, the tendency to linger on preparatory acts and form from them new sexual goals that can take the place of normal ones. . Upon closer examination, it always turns out that, apparently, the strangest of these new goals are nevertheless already emerging during the normal sexual process.

Feeling and looking

A certain amount of groping is necessary for a person, at least to achieve normal sexual goals. It is also well known what a source of pleasure, on the one hand, and what a source of new energy, on the other hand, the skin becomes thanks to the sensations from the touch of a sexual object. Therefore, a delay in palpation, if only sexual intercourse develops further, can hardly be considered a perversion.

It’s the same with looking, which ultimately comes down to feeling. Visual impression is carried out in the way in which libidinal arousal is most often awakened and on the permeability of which - if such a teleological approach is allowed - natural selection calculates, directing the development of the sexual object in an aesthetic sense. The covering of the body, which progresses along with culture, awakens sexual curiosity, striving to complete the sexual object for oneself by exposing forbidden parts; but this curiosity can be diverted to artistic purposes (“sublimated”) if it is possible to divert its interest from the genitals and direct it to the body as a whole. Delay on this intermediate sexual goal - emphasized sexual staring [17] - is characteristic to a certain extent of most normal people; it gives them the opportunity to direct a certain part of their libido to higher artistic goals. And vice versa, the passion for voyeurism becomes a perversion: a) if it is limited exclusively to the genitals, b) if it is associated with overcoming the feeling of disgust (voyeurs: voyeurism with the function of excretion), c) if, instead of preparing for the achievement of a normal sexual goal, it represses it . The latter is clearly expressed among exhibitionists, who, if I may judge from one incident, show their genitals in order to be rewarded with the opportunity to see the genitals of others.[18]

With perversion, the desire of which is to look at and show oneself, a very surprising feature appears, which we will consider in the next deviation. The sexual goal appears expressed in two forms: active

and
passive
.

The force that resists the passion for voyeurism and sometimes even defeats it is shame

(like disgust before).

Sadism and masochism

The tendency to cause pain to a sexual object and its opposite - to be tormented, these most frequent and significant perversions, are called by Krafft-Ebing in both its forms, active and passive, sadism

and
masochism
.
Other authors prefer a narrower designation algolagnia
, emphasizing pleasure from pain, cruelty, while with the name chosen by Krafft-Ebing, all kinds of humiliation and humility are brought to the fore.

The roots of active algolagnia, sadism within the normal range, are easy to prove. The sexuality of most men contains an admixture of aggressiveness

, a tendency to violently overcome, the biological significance of which is probably the need to overcome the resistance of the sexual object in another way, not only through acts of
courtship
. Sadism in this case would correspond to the aggressive component of sexual desire that has become independent, exaggerated, and brought to the fore by shifting to the main place.

The concept of sadism, in the ordinary use of the word, oscillates between an active and violent constellation towards the sexual object and the exclusive inseparability of satisfaction from the subjugation and torment of the sexual object. Strictly speaking, only the latter case has the right to be called perversion.

Likewise, the term “masochism” covers all passive attitudes towards sexual life and towards a sexual object, the extreme expression of which is the inseparability of satisfaction from the experience of physical and mental pain on the part of one’s sexual object. Masochism as a perversion, apparently, has moved further away from the normal sexual goal than its opposite sadism; one can only doubt whether it ever appears primarily or always develops [transforms] from sadism. Often masochism is only a continuation of sadism directed at one’s own personality, temporarily replacing the place of a sexual object. The study of extreme cases of masochistic perversion leads to the idea of ​​the combined influence of a large number of factors that exaggerate and fix the initial passive sexual attitude (castration complex, consciousness of guilt).

The pain overcome in this case is likened to disgust and shame, which resist libido.

Sadism and masochism occupy a special place among perversions, since the underlying opposition between activity and passivity belongs to the most general characteristic features of sexual life.

The cultural history of mankind proves beyond any doubt that cruelty and sexual desire are closely related, but to explain this connection scientists have gone no further than emphasizing the aggressive element of the libido. According to some authors, this aggressiveness mixed with sexual desire is actually a remnant of cannibalistic desires, that is, the apparatus of mastery takes part in it, serving the satisfaction of another, ontogenetically older, great need [19]. It was also suggested that all pain itself contains the possibility of feeling pleasure. Let us be satisfied with the impression that the explanation of this perversion can in no way be considered satisfactory and that it is possible that in this case several mental aspirations are combined for one effect.

The most striking feature of this perversion, however, is that its passive and active forms always occur together in the same person. Whoever takes pleasure in causing pain to others during sexual intercourse is also capable of experiencing pleasure from the pain that is caused to him by sexual intercourse. A sadist is always at the same time a masochist, although the active or passive side of perversion may be more pronounced in him and represent the predominant sexual activity.

We see, therefore, that some of the perversions always occur as opposite pairs, to which we must attribute great theoretical significance, taking into account the material that will be given below[20]. Further, it is quite obvious that the existence of the opposite pair sadism - masochism cannot be explained directly and only by an admixture of aggressiveness. Instead, there is a desire to connect these simultaneously existing opposites with the opposition between male and female, which consists in bisexuality, the meaning of which in psychoanalysis is reduced to the opposition between active and passive.

3. General information about perversions.

Deviation and illness

Doctors who first studied perversions in pronounced cases and under special conditions were, of course, inclined to attribute to them the nature of a disease or degeneration, like inversions. However, in this case it is easier than in the previous one to recognize this view as incorrect. The results of daily observations suggest that most of these disorders, at least the least severe of them, constitute a sometimes missing component of the sexual life of a healthy person, who treats them the same way as other intimate things. Where circumstances favor it, a normal person can for a while replace the normal sexual goal with such a perversion or give it a place along with the first. Subconsciously, every healthy person has some kind of hidden desire - an addition to the normal sexual goal, which can be called perversion, and such a general prevalence is enough to prove the inappropriateness of using the name “perversion” as a reproach. It is in the area of ​​sexual life that we currently encounter special, strictly speaking, insoluble difficulties if we want to draw a sharp line between only deviations within physiology and painful symptoms.

In some of these perversions, the quality of the new sexual goal requires special assessment. Some of the perversions are so far from the norm in their content that we cannot help but declare them “painful,” especially those in which sexual desire manifests itself in actions that cause amazement in the sense of overcoming resistance (shame, disgust, horror, pain, licking feces, rape of corpses). But even in these cases it cannot be said with complete confidence that the criminals are always persons with pathological diseases or the mentally ill. It should be noted that persons who in ordinary situations behave as normal, only in sexual life, being in the grip of the most uncontrollable of all attractions, manifest themselves as sick. On the contrary, behind obvious abnormality in other life situations there is usually always abnormal sexual behavior.

In most cases, we can identify the painful nature of perversions not in the content of the new sexual goal, but in relation to the norm: if the perversion does not appear along with the normal (sexual goal and object), when favorable conditions contribute, and unfavorable conditions interfere with the normal, but under all conditions displaces and replaces the normal; We see, therefore, in exclusivity and fixation of perversions the greatest reason to regard it as a painful symptom.

Participation of the psyche in perversions

Perhaps it is precisely in the most disgusting perversions that we must recognize the greatest participation of the psyche in the transformation of sexual desire. A certain amount of mental work has been done here, which cannot be denied appreciation, in the sense of idealizing desire, despite its disgusting manifestation. The omnipotence of love, perhaps, is nowhere shown so strongly as in these errors of love. The highest and the lowest are everywhere closely connected in sexuality (“... from heaven through the world to the underworld”).

Two outputs

When studying perversion, we came to the idea that sexual desire has to fight such mental forces as resistance, repression, among which shame and disgust stand out first of all. It is permissible to assume that these forces take part in restraining attraction within limits considered normal; and if they developed in the individual before the sexual attraction reached its full strength, then they probably gave a certain direction to its development[21].

Further, we note that some of the studied perversions become understandable only when certain motives coincide. If their classification is required, then they must be complex in nature. This leads us to the idea that the sexual desire itself may consist of components that are again separated from it in the form of a perversion. Clinical experience thus directs our attention to connections

(Verschmelzungen), which have lost their expression in the monotony of normal behavior[22].

4. Sexual desire in neurotics

Psychoanalysis

An important addition to the understanding of sexual desire in individuals, at least very close to normal, should be called clinical psychoanalysis. In order to obtain thorough and accurate information about the sex life of so-called psychoneurotics (hysteria, obsessional neurosis, incorrectly called neurasthenia, undoubtedly, dementia praecox, paranoia), they must be subjected to psychoanalytic research, which is based on the invention of J. Breuer and In 1893, I introduced a method of treatment that was then called “cathartic.”

I must warn you that these psychoneuroses, as my experience shows, are the result of the action of the forces of sexual instincts. I am convinced that the energy of the sexual drive not only complements the forces that feed the painful phenomena (symptoms), but that these drives are the only constant and most important source of neurosis, so that the sexual life of the said persons manifests itself exclusively, or predominantly, or only partially in these symptoms . The symptoms are, as I have already said, the sexual fulfillment of the patients. The proof of this statement is the increasing number of psychoanalyses of hysterical and other neuroses over the course of twenty-five years, the results of which I have presented in detail [23].

Psychoanalysis eliminates the symptoms of hysterics, based on the assumption that these symptoms are substitutes - as if a transcription of a number of affective mental processes, desires, aspirations, which, thanks to a special mental process (repression), are blocked from being eliminated through conscious mental activity. It is these thoughts held in an unconscious state that strive to find an expression corresponding to their affective force, a way out (Abfuhr), and in hysteria they find it in the process of conversion in somatic phenomena, that is, in hysterical symptoms. With the correct reverse transformation of symptoms, carried out using a special technique, affective ideas that have become conscious make it possible to acquire the most accurate information about the nature and origin of these previously unconscious mental formations.

Results of psychoanalysis

Thus, we have found that symptoms are substitutes for aspirations, borrowing their strength from the sources of sexual attraction. This is confirmed by the facts known to us about the nature of all psychoneurotics and hysterics taken in this case as an example, their illness and the reasons for this illness. In the hysterical character there is a certain amount of sexual repression

, going beyond the normal, increasing resistance to sexual desire, known to us as shame, disgust, morality. This is a kind of instinctive escape from the obsessive presence of a sexual problem, which in pronounced cases is a consequence of complete sexual ignorance, which persists until the age of puberty.

This essential feature characteristic of hysteria is often hidden from simple observation due to the existence of another constitutional factor of hysteria - an overdeveloped sexual desire; but psychological analysis makes it possible to detect it every time and resolve the contradictory mystery of hysteria by identifying the opposite pair: too strong a sexual need and too far-reached denial of the sexual.

The reason for the disease occurs for a person predisposed to hysteria when, due to his own maturation or external life conditions, he is faced with a real sexual demand. In the conflict between the demand of attraction and the counteraction of the denial of sexuality, there is one way out - illness, which does not eliminate the conflict, but tries to evade its resolution by turning libidinal desire into a symptom. If a hysterical person, for example a man, falls ill from a banal emotional experience, from a conflict, the center of which is not sexual interest, then such an exception is only apparent. In such cases, psychoanalysis can always prove that it is the sexual component of the conflict that creates the preconditions for the disease, depriving mental processes of the possibility of normal development.

Neurosis and perversion

A significant part of the objections to this position of mine is explained by the fact that many people confuse sexuality, from which I derive psychoneurotic symptoms, with normal sexual desire. But psychoanalysis teaches even more. He shows that the symptoms are in no way formed due to the so-called normal sexual desire (at least not exclusively or predominantly), but represent a converted expression of impulses that would be called perverted (perverted in the broad sense) if they could be manifest without distraction from consciousness directly in imaginary intentions and actions. The symptoms are thus formed partly due to abnormal sexuality: neurosis is, so to speak, the negative of perversion[24].

In the sexual desire of psychoneurotics one can find all the deviations that we have studied, both as a change in normal sexual life and as an expression of a painful one.

A. All neurotics (without exception) have in their unconscious mental life a desire for inversion, a fixation of libido on people of the same sex. It is impossible to fully elucidate the influence of this factor on the formation of the disease picture without going into lengthy explanations: but I can assure you that there is always an unconscious tendency towards inversion, and this tendency is especially useful in explaining male hysteria[25].

B. In psychoneurotics, as symptom-forming factors, it can be proven that there are various tendencies in the unconscious to go beyond anatomical boundaries, and among them, especially often and intensely, those that assign the role of the genitals to the mucous membrane of the mouth and anus.

B. An exclusive role among the symptom-forming factors in psychoneuroses is played by private drives, which manifest themselves mostly in the form of opposite pairs (Partielltriebe), as carriers of new sexual goals, such as the mania of voyeurism

, exhibitionism, as well as actively and passively expressed attraction to cruelty. The participation of the latter is necessary to understand the pathological nature of these symptoms, which for the most part have a decisive influence on the social behavior of patients. Through this connection of cruelty with libido, the transformation of love into hatred, of tender emotional movements into hostile ones, is accomplished, characteristic of many neurotic cases and, it seems, even of all paranoia.

Interest in these conclusions is heightened by the establishment of the following facts.

1. Where in the unconscious there is such an attraction that is capable of forming a pair with the opposite, it is always possible to prove the action of this opposite. Each “active” perversion is thus accompanied by its “passive” pair; whoever is an exhibitionist in the unconscious is also a voyeur; whoever suffers from the consequences of repressed sadistic impulses may also develop symptoms from the source of masochistic inclination. The complete similarity with the manifestation of “positive” perversions undoubtedly deserves great attention, but in the picture of the disease one or another of the opposite tendencies plays a predominant role.

2. In a pronounced case of neurosis, only one of these perverse drives is rarely detected; usually a significant number of them develop, with traces of all existing ones; but the intensity of a particular drive does not depend on the development of others. And in this regard, the study of “positive” perversions reveals to us their exact opposite.

Private attractions and erogenous zones

Summarizing everything that the study of positive and negative perversions has given us, we quite naturally come to their explanation by a number of “private drives”, which, however, are not primary, and can be further decomposed. By “drive” we understand, first of all, the mental representation of a constant intrasomatic source of irritation, in contrast to “irritation” caused by individual excitations perceived from the outside. Attraction, therefore, is one of the concepts that distinguishes the mental from the physical. The simplest and most natural assumption about the nature of the instincts would be that they themselves do not possess any quality, but can only be perceived as a measure of the required work imposed on mental life. Only the relationship of drives to their somatic sources and their goals distinguishes them from each other and gives them specific properties. The source of drive is an exciting process in some organ, and the immediate goal of drive is the cessation of irritation of this organ.

Another preliminary hypothesis in the theory of drives, which we cannot ignore, is that the organs of the body produce two types of stimulation, due to the difference in their chemical nature. We call one type of this excitation specifically sexual, and the corresponding organ - the “erogenous zone”

partial sexual attraction arising in him[26].

In perversions in which sexual significance is attached to the oral cavity and anus, the role of the erogenous zone is quite obvious. It manifests itself in all respects as part of the reproductive apparatus[27]. In hysteria, these parts of the body, as well as the mucous membrane tracts emanating from them, become the site of the appearance of new sensations and changes in innervation - even processes that can be compared to an erection - just like the genitals under the influence of excitations during normal sexual processes.

The significance of erogenous zones as secondary apparatuses and surrogates of the genitals is most clearly manifested among all psychoneuroses in hysteria; however, this does not mean that they can be given less importance in other forms of the disease, they are only less noticeable here, because with them (obsessive neurosis, paranoia) the formation of symptoms occurs in areas of the mental apparatus located somewhat further from the centers of bodily movements. With obsessional neurosis, the significance of impulses that create new sexual goals and, as it seems, independent of erogenous zones, becomes very incredible. Still, when enjoying voyeurism and exhibitionism, the eye corresponds to the erogenous zone; with the components of pain and cruelty of sexual desire, the same role is assumed by the skin, which in certain places of the body differentiates into sensory organs and is modified into the mucous membrane as an erogenous zone.

Explanation of the apparent predominance of perverted sexuality in psychoneuroses

The above considerations have perhaps shed a false light on the sexuality of psychoneurotics. It may seem that, based on their innate characteristics, psychoneurotics in their sexual behavior quickly approach perverted ones and move away from normal ones to the same extent. However, it is very likely that the constitutional predisposition of these patients, in addition to too strong sexual repression and extreme strength of sexual attraction, also contains an incredible tendency towards perversion in the broadest sense of the word. However, a study of mild cases shows that the latter assumption is not at all necessary and the influence of one of the factors must be ignored when assessing painful effects. In the majority of psychoneurotics, the disease appears only after the onset of puberty under the influence of the demands of a normal sexual life, against which repression is primarily directed. The disease may arise later when the libido is denied satisfaction in the normal way. In both cases, the libido behaves like a stream whose main channel is dammed; it fills the collateral pathways that were previously empty. Thus, the seemingly great, at least negative, tendency of psychoneurotics to perversion may be due to a collateral flow, or at least this collateral flow is intensifying. But there is no doubt that sexual repression as an internal factor must be placed on a par with other external factors, which, like deprivation of freedom, the inaccessibility of a normal sexual object, the danger of normal sexual intercourse, cause perversions in individuals who would otherwise remain normal.

In individual cases of neuroses, the tendency to perversion may have different causes: one time the innate magnitude of the tendency to perversion becomes decisive, and another time it is the collateral strengthening of this tendency due to the displacement of libido from the normal sexual goal and sexual object. It would be a mistake to create a contradiction where there are cooperative relations. Most often, neurosis will manifest itself in cases where the constitution and life experience act together in the same sense. A clearly defined constitution can, perhaps, do without support from life impressions; a strong life shock will most likely lead to neurosis even with a mediocre constitution. These points of view, however, retain their force in other areas, equally for the etiological significance of the innate and the accidentally experienced.

If preference is given to the assumption that a particularly pronounced tendency to perversion still relates to the peculiarities of the psychoneurotic constitution, then there is hope that, depending on the innate predominance of one or another erogenous zone, one or another partial drive, a wide variety of such constitutions can be distinguished. Whether the congenital predisposition to perversions corresponds to a special attitude towards the choice of a certain form of the disease - this, like much else in this area, has not yet been studied.

Link to infantilization of sexuality

Having proved that perverted aspirations form the symptoms of psychoneuroses, we have significantly increased the number of people who can be classified as perverted. The point is not only that neurotics themselves represent a fairly large group, it should be noted that neuroses in all their forms are gradually becoming one of the components of health; after all, Möbius could justifiably say: “We are all a little hysterical.” Thus, due to the incredible prevalence of perversions, we are forced to admit that a predisposition to them must not be a rare feature, but part of a considered normal constitution.

The question whether perversions are the result of innate conditions or arise from random experiences, as Binet believed about fetishism, is quite controversial. Now his solution appears to us: at the basis of perversions there is something innate, but something that is innate in all people as a predisposition, varies in its intensity and waits to be awakened by the influences of life. We are talking about the innate roots of sexual attraction given in the constitution, which in one series of cases have developed into real carriers of sexual activity (perversions), and in other cases experiencing insufficient suppression (repression), so that in a roundabout way they can, like symptoms of a disease, attract to themselves significant part of the sexual energy: meanwhile, in the most favorable cases, bypassing both extremes, thanks to the influence of restrictions and other processing, the so-called normal sexual life develops.

However, we must also understand that the supposed constitution, which has the beginnings of all perversions, can only be demonstrated in the child, although in him all the drives can manifest themselves only with a small intensity. But if, on this basis, we are inclined to think that neurotics retained their sexuality in the infantile state or returned to it, our scientific interest should be attracted to the sexual life of the child, and it becomes necessary to trace the play of influences that dominate the development of childhood sexuality before its transformation into perversion, neurosis or normal sex life.

The category 'libido' as a means of describing the functioning of sexuality in normal and pathological conditions

The concept of "libido" was used by Cicero, according to whom libido (or unbridled desire) is contrary to reason and can be found in all fools. It was introduced into scientific literature in the second half of the 19th century in the works of M. Benedict “Electrotherapy” (1868), A. Moll “Study of sexual libido” (1898) to designate sexual desire, sexual instinct. At the beginning of the 20th century, the term “libido” became widespread within psychoanalysis to describe various manifestations of sexuality.

Freud used the concept of libido before psychoanalysis arose. If the term “psychoanalysis” was introduced into scientific use in 1896, then his first use of the concept “libido” dates back to mid-1894. It is reflected in the work “Project for Scientific Psychology,” which was sent in parts to his Berlin friend W. Fliess and which was not published during Freud’s lifetime. Distinguishing between anxiety neurosis and melancholia, he wrote that the first phenomenon is characterized by the accumulation of physical sexual tension, while the second is characterized by the accumulation of mental sexual tension. An external source of excitation causes such a change in the psyche, which, increasing, turns into mental arousal. Having reached a certain amount, physical sexual tension gives rise to mental libido, which then leads to coitus. Fear neurosis is characterized by a deficiency of sexual affect and mental libido.

A few months later, at the end of 1894, Freud wrote that a patient who explains his reluctance to eat by lack of appetite actually has a different reason, since loss of appetite in sexual terms is nothing other than loss of libido. In this regard, he believed, melancholia represents mourning for lost libido. More than two decades later, these ideas were further reflected in his work “Mourning and Melancholy” (1917), where it was emphasized that with melancholy, many fights for the object ensued, in which hatred and love oppose each other. The first is to free the libido from the object, the second is to maintain the position of the libido under pressure.

Letters to V. Fliess in 1897 contain Freud's thoughts on infantile sexuality, according to which the delay in the realization of libido at an early age can lead to suppression and neuroses. Subsequently, these thoughts were further developed in the work “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” (1905), in which, when considering the stages of psychosexual development of a child, he correlated libido with human sexual desire by analogy with hunger, corresponding to the food instinct. In subsequent reprints of this work, Freud put forward a psychoanalytic theory of libido. In accordance with it, libido was understood as a force capable of quantitative change, which can measure all processes and transformations in the field of sexual arousal.

For Freud, libido is, first of all, a special type of energy, different from the energy underlying mental processes. Its specificity is that libido has a special origin associated with sexual arousal, and has the character of a mentally expressed amount of energy. Based on this understanding of libidinal energy, Freud believed that its increase or decrease, distribution or shift should and could explain the observed psychosexual phenomena. If the libido finds its psychic use in order to enter into connection with sexual objects, then in this case one can see how it is fixed on objects, moves from one object to another and directs the sexual activity of a person, leading to satisfaction, that is, partial and temporary weakening , attenuation of libidinal energy.

In his work “On Narcissism” (1914), Freud’s theory of libido was further developed: he distinguished between “object-libido”, “I-libido” and “narcissistic libido”. This was due to three circumstances: a more thorough study than before of the question of a person’s relationship to his own body as a sexual object; therapeutic activity, during which the psychoanalyst encountered the narcissistic behavior of patients whose narcissism was not a perversion, but a libidinal addition to the egoism of the instinct of self-preservation; observations of the life of primitive peoples and children. The latter allowed us to make the assumption that initially libido is concentrated on one’s own “I” (primary narcissism), subsequently part of the libido is transferred to objects (“object-libido”), but this transfer may not be final, as a result of which libido can again turn inward ( "secondary narcissism").

Speaking about different types of psychic energy , Freud believed that in a state of narcissism, both types of energy are fused together, and rough analysis is unable to distinguish between them. In the early works of the founder of psychoanalysis, the division of drives into sexual and ego drives was carried out. Libido was understood as sexual energy, in the form of which sexual drive strives for its realization and, ultimately, leaves an indelible mark on a person’s life.

Freud's theory of libido, presented in the work “On Narcissism,” was a kind of response to the innovations that C. G. Jung introduced into the psychoanalytic understanding of libido, which was reflected in his book “Libido, Its Metamorphoses and Symbols” (1912). The final break between them in 1913 was due to a number of circumstances, among which an important place was occupied by differences in views on libido. If in the first part of “Libido, Its Metamorphoses and Symbols” Jung still adhered to the Freudian understanding of libido, expressing only isolated thoughts about the possibility of using the concept of libido to explain what he called “inversion neurosis”, then in the second part of this work he already explicitly wrote not only about the need to transfer Freud's theory of libido to the psychotic area, but also about an expanded interpretation of libido as such.

Having familiarized himself with the first part of the material, which was later included in the publication “Libido, Its Metamorphoses and Symbols,” Freud, in one of his letters to Jung at the end of 1911, noted that Jung’s thoughts about libido seemed interesting to him. At the same time, he expressed concerns about possible misunderstandings in connection with an expanded interpretation of libido. He emphasized that for him libido is not identical to any desire, and that, according to his hypothesis, there are only two drives (sexual and ego drive) and only the energy of sexual drive can be called libido. Freud was concerned that Jung might disappear for a long time, in his words, “in the clubs of religious-libidinal fog.” Anticipating a negative attitude towards his innovations, the Swiss psychiatrist did not send the founder of psychoanalysis a handwritten version of the second part of his work. Meanwhile, in it, instead of the “descriptive-psychological” or “actual-sexual” concept of libido, he proposed a “genetic” definition, according to which the term “libido” began to mean psychic energy in general that goes beyond sexuality. Jung's understanding of libido meant, in fact, desexualization, since in the expanded interpretation, libido covered, in addition to sexuality, other forms of “mental energy.” Therefore, it is not surprising that, after reading Jung’s book on libido, Freud replied to him in his next letter that he really liked this work in particular, but did not like it in general.

From Jung's point of view, libido is not so much sexuality as mental, spiritual energy as such, manifested in the life process and subjectively perceived by a person as an unconscious aspiration or desire.

Since libido undergoes a complex transformation, taking on various symbolic forms, the decoding and interpretation of libidinal symbolism is recognized as one of the essential tasks of analytical psychology, put forward by Jung as opposed to the classical psychoanalysis of Freud.

In Libido, Its Metamorphoses and Symbols, Jung argued that Freud's theory of libido was untenable when applied to patients suffering from schizophrenia. That is why he, Jung, had to resort to an expanded concept of libido, especially since, in his opinion, when analyzing the case of Schreber, carried out by Freud in the work “Psychoanalytic Notes on an Autobiographically Described Case of Paranoia” (1911), the founder of psychoanalysis himself abandoned sexual the meaning of libido and identified it with psychic interest in general. Such a statement caused sharp criticism from Szcz Ferenczi, who tried to defend Freud's theory of libido. In turn, arguing on this issue with a Swiss psychiatrist, Freud in his work “On Narcissism” noted that Jung’s statement was too hasty, the evidence he provided was insufficient, he never and nowhere declared such a rejection of the theory of libido.

The controversy between Jung and Freud in connection with the understanding of libido led to the fact that for a long time the founder of psychoanalysis did not recognize an expanded interpretation of this concept. True, speaking against various types of accusations of “pansexualism”, he emphasized that in psychoanalysis there really is an expanded interpretation of sexuality, if by this we mean the study of childhood sexuality and so-called perversions (sexual perversions). But it was only in the 20s that he began to use the more euphonious concept of Eros. At the same time, he invariably emphasized that the expanded sexuality of psychoanalysis is close to the Eros of the “divine” Plato.

• So, at the initial stage of the formation and development of psychoanalysis, the term “libido” was used by Freud to explain both the causes of mental disorders, neuroses, and the course of mental development of a normal person, his scientific and artistic activity (sublimation).
• In a later period, in the works of the 20-30s, psychoanalytic ideas about libido became an integral part of his doctrine of the drive to life (Eros) and the drive to death. The concept of “libido” transfers sexual issues into the field of psychoenergetics.
• Transforming during individual development, libido can give rise to both normal and pathological personality development. This line in psychoanalysis will then be continued by W. Reich.

Zinchenko Yu.P. Sign-symbolic mediation of sexual function in normal and pathological conditions. - M., 2003.

sexuality