Libido

The term 'libido', from the Latin word for 'desire' or 'lust', is used in psychoanalysis to describe the (psychic) mental energy generated by the stimulation of erogenous zones such as the mouth, the breasts, the anus or the genitals. Libido is a specifically sexual energy. Freud posits a distinction between the sexual or libidinal drives and the self-preservation or ego drives. One of the major disagreements between Freud and Jung is the latter's tendency to desexualize the concept of the libido and to dissolve it into a more general category of mental energy.

Freud often employs metaphors from the science of hydraulics to describe libido. It is said to be quantifiable, plastic and adhesive, and can be attached to or withdrawn from objects thanks to the mechanism of cathexis. It can also be desexualized or used in sublimation. Libido is also described by Freud as being active and masculine. Although Freud refers to the libido throughout his work, he rarely defines the concept with any great precision. The clearest discussions are to be found in his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, chapter 26 of the Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and the second of the Two Encyclopedia Articles.

Lacan uses the term 'libido' very sparingly, and tends to discuss sexuality in terms of desire and jouissance.

The sexual drive. Freud believed that the sexual drive is as natural and insistent as hunger and that the libido manifests its influence as early as birth.