Before wrapping up this series, a pit-stop is due. Not touching upon an important phenomenon would make this whole series incomplete. What we have been talking about in this whole series is really million shades of Libido and its dynamics. Now the question will follow naturally – what Libido is.
These days Libido, almost without exception (and sadly!), is used to refer to sexual drive. This definition in fact owes its roots to the the early years of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theories. Interestingly, with time he changed his definition of Libido. He described it as life instinct, which is responsible for all sorts of urges and drives we feel, which also includes, obviously the sexual drive. Yet, in general use, Libido, over time, got reduced to the sexual drive.
Featured Image:
SCULPTURE: Drunkness of Bacchus and Faun by Michelangelo.
Inside the head of a teenager
Greek-Roman God Dionysus – symbol of Libido in erotic sense
(a.k.a state of mind, purpose and meaning of teenage years)
“The Dionysiac religion contained orgiastic rites that implied the need for an initiate to abandon himself to his animal nature and thereby experience the full fertilizing power of the Earth Mother. The initiating agent for this rite of passage in the Dionysiac ritual was wine. It was supposed to produce the symbolic lowering of consciousness necessary to introduce the novice into the closely guarded secrets of nature, whose essence was expressed by a symbol of erotic fulfillment.”
Jung, Carl Gustav. Man and His Symbols . Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
the image is taken from Internet
Libido Is Not (Only) Sex Drive
On the contrary, Jung introduced a broader understanding of Libido. He described it as totality of psychic energy. The laws of energy apply to it as well – it never disappears, always changes its form. As usual, in front of the lucidity of his mind, I do not know if someone can object this definition.
Usually, the widely practiced and generally accepted analytical psychoanalysis schools offer detailed description of the transfer of Libido during the first half of life – namely from mouth to anal to genital organs etc. But they notably fail to explain the mental processes happen in the second half of life or anything that is not about erotic love. For example, the feeling of Empathy that especially gets upper hand in our mind in the second half of life. Even the love we feel for our own kids and parents. Or our mental set-up not to cease hoping for better, believe in magic, seek guidance of supernatural powers, need for spirituality etc. All these are part of life instincts and equally important urges in certain periods of human life. We know only too well that disregarding these urges may lead to tragic results and broken destinies.
To sum up, Jung, (I think) rightfully, understands Libido not as sexual force solely, but as totality of psychic energy. For him, the unconscious itself is this energy, it is part of nature. It is not a dirtbag for incompatible desires and fears only as regarded in Freudian psychoanalysis. It holds them too, but also is source of life growing germs too. He may have agreed with Freud when it is about the first half of life. He asserts that in the second half this energy gradually retreats from erotic life, diverting itself towards empathy, non-erotic love and spirituality. Not so good news, such transformations of this energy never happens slowly and quietly. They are tumultuous psychic processes and we experience them as existential crisis – namely, the second one would be mid-life crisis.
Libido and Teen Suicides
Specifically, in our Mother Archetype series, what we talked about was mostly the dynamics of Libido during adolescence, or teen years. This is one of the most transformative and most difficult to handle periods we experience as humans. This is a period, I guess both geniuses would agree on it – when Libido moves to the genital area. This is the phase of procreation and as Jung says, time to dive in and fully rejoice the carefully guarded secrets of nature. Put it plainly, walking erection and baby-making in full force. Yet this transformation doesn’t come as a prize. At this period, Libido – the psychic energy, through mental efforts of each individual, should detach itself from the safe zone of the childhood, the mother (the instinctual safe harbor and infantile bond) and channel up to the next phase. This detachment would mean “breaking off” the shell of family protection to build an individual personality. Mythologically speaking, this process would mean to symbolically die to the previous self and reborn into a new life full of creativity and potential, but with great deal of uncertainty and doubts as well.
How would it feel?
Compare it to losing oneself in an unknown forest at night in some unknown spot on Earth and frantically trying to find the way home. Or waking up to find oneself in the middle of ocean with no land in horizon and all the while learning to swim, trying to stay afloat and finding harbor. Frustration beyond explanation, right? This is a mentally and physically quite destructive process. Rebirth and re-discovery of self should pass thru destruction, rule of thumb! Failing to go through this mental transformation is basically shrinking away from responsibilities of new life and hanging on to what becomes agonizing already. No wonder, currently we hear about so many cases of adolescence suicide, depression, obsessions with immoral behavior (a quick resort to hide from uncertainty), addictions, drugs etc. Lack of conventional wisdom, guidance and consumerism takes this whole process to a whole new painful level.
To round up Jung’s thoughts on it, the individual, who manages successful transformation (and we are talking about a process that lasts for years), would return to make part of the community not as a shadow of someone, but as “citizen” – equal member of the city, motherland, tribe, community whatever one belongs to.
For the myriad forms of transformation in boys and girls, check out the Mother Archetype to find your own type.
The next and last post will be about Incest – why sexual relationship between the same blood relatives is taboo and self-occurring source of guilt and shame. Why are we built in this way? Is Incest a problem or solution?
Mother Archetype I
Mother Archetype II – Son Lover of the Mother Goddess
Mother Archetype III – Don Juanism
Mother Archetype IV – Homosexuality and Impotence
Mother Archetype V – Exaggerated Maternal Instinct
Mother Archetype VI – Home-Wrecker With a Mission
Mother Archetype VII – Shadow Daughter
Mother Archetype VIII – Mom Hater
Mother Archetype IX – Part Human, Part Supernatural
Mother Archetype X – Motherland
Mother Archetype XII – Incest: Problem or Solution?
