We are the more compelled now to accentuate the libidinous character of
the self-preservative instincts, since we are venturing on the further
step of recognising the sexual instinct as the Eros, the all-sustaining,
and of deriving the narcissistic libido of the ego from the sum of the
libido quantities that bring about the mutual adherence of the somatic
cells. But we now find ourselves suddenly confronted with this question:
If the self-preservative instincts are also of a libidinous kind, then
perhaps we have no other instincts at all than libidinous ones. There
are at least no others apparent. In that event we must admit the critics
to be in the right who from the first have suspected that
psycho-analysis makes sexuality the explanation of everything, or the
innovators like Jung who, quickly making up their mind, have used
‘libido’ as a synonym for ‘instinctive force’ in general. Is that not
so?
This result was at all events one not intended by us. On the contrary,
we took as our starting point a sharp distinction between the
ego-instincts (= death-instincts) and the sexual instincts (=
life-instincts). We were prepared indeed to reckon even the alleged
self-preservative instincts of the ego among death-instincts, a position
which we have since corrected and withdrawn from. Our standpoint was a
dualistic one from the beginning, and is so to-day more sharply than
before, since we no longer call the contrasting tendencies egoistic and
sexual instincts, but life-instincts and death-instincts. Jung’s libido
theory, on the other hand, is a monistic one; that he has applied the
term libido to his only instinctive energy was bound to create
confusion, but should not have any further effect on us. We suspect that
there are in the ego other instincts than those of self-preservation;
only we ought to be in a position to demonstrate them. Unfortunately so
little progress has been made in the analysis of the ego that this proof
becomes extraordinarily difficult of attainment. The libidinous
instincts of the ego may indeed be conjoined in a special way with other
ego-instincts of which we as yet know nothing. Before ever we had
clearly recognised narcissism, the conjecture was already present in the
minds of psychoanalysts that the ‘ego-instincts’ had drawn libidinous
components to themselves. But these are merely vague possibilities which
our opponents will hardly take into account. It remains an awkward fact
that analysis up to now has only put us in the position of demonstrating
libidinous impulses. The conclusion that therefore there are no others
is one to which we do not assent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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