Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of ThoughtJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Philosophy
Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. A Contribution to the History of the Evolution of Thought
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Libido (Psychology); Mother and child; Psychoanalysis; Subconsciousness; Symbolism (Psychology)
theoretically, from the standpoint of the Freudian theory of libido. If
Abraham believes that through the withdrawal of the libido from the
outer world the paranoid system or the schizophrenic symptomatology
results, then this assumption is not justified from the standpoint of
the knowledge of that time, because a mere libido introversion and
regression leads, speedily, as Freud has clearly shown, into the
neuroses, and, strictly speaking, into the transference neuroses, and
not into dementia præcox. Therefore, the transference of the libido
theory to dementia præcox is impossible, because this illness produces a
loss of reality which cannot be explained by the deficiency of the
libido defined in this narrow sense.
It affords me especial satisfaction that our teacher also, when he laid
his hand on the delicate material of the paranoic psychology, was forced
to doubt the applicability of the conception of libido held by him at
that time. The sexual definition of this did not permit me to understand
those disturbances of function, which affect the vague territory of the
hunger instinct just as much as that of the sexual instinct. For a long
time the theory of libido seemed to me inapplicable to dementia præcox.
With increasing experience in analytical work, however, I became aware
of a gradual change in my conception of libido. In place of the
descriptive definition of the “Three Contributions” there gradually grew
up a generic definition of the libido, which rendered it possible for me
to replace the expression “psychic energy” by the term “libido.” I was
forced to ask myself whether indeed the function of reality to-day does
not consist only in its smaller part of libido sexualis and in the
greater part of other impulses? It is still a very important question
whether phylogenetically the function of reality is not, at least in
great part, of sexual origin. To answer this question directly in regard
to the function of reality is not possible, but we shall attempt to come
to an understanding indirectly.
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