libido

Psychoanal psychic energy emanating from the id

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

libido

[lə′bē·dō]

(psychology)

Sexual desire.

The sum total of all instinctual forces; psychic energy or drive usually associated with the sexual instinct.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Libido

one of the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, developed by S. Freud.

According to Freud, the libido is a primarily unconscious drive of a sexual character. Unlike the urge for self-preservation, the libido may be repressed or undergo complex transformation. Freud believed that the libido is localized in different zones of the body during the process of individual development, determining the phases of psychosexual development and the respective changes in the objects of attraction (from autoeroticism to attraction to external objects). Upon encountering an external obstacle, the libido may return to past stages of development, acquiring the form of pathological regression. At the same time, it may turn away from the original goals and find expression in the processes of creativity (sublimation).

In a polemic with Freud, C. G. Jung reexamined the concept of libido. Jung denied the libido an exclusively sexual character, considering it psychic energy generally. Understood in this way, the libido appears in Jung’s theory as a metaphysical principle of the psyche and a basic psychic reality. In Jung’s idealistic treatment, this is an autonomous, closed system, functioning on the basis of the principle of compensation.

D. N. LIALIKOV

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References in periodicals archive

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is currently on a rise in adult women population manifested by low self-confidence and less connected with their partners.

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Patients should discontinue treatment after 8 weeks if they do not report an improvement in sexual desire and associated distress.

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The exact way in which Vyleesi helps stimulate sexual desire remains unclear, but it works on melanocortin receptors on cells, the FDA said.

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This leads her to ask whether low or no sexual desire could be potentially problematic, in that it might lead people to devalue self-giving and relational intimacy.

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* "Acquired low sexual desire" means that a patient had an adequate sexual desire that decreased or ceased for an unknown reason.

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The primary endpoint for sexual desire in the first two studies was a response on an electronic diary reporting the highest level of desire over the last 24 hours.

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Sexual desire, defined as having an interest in sexual activity that leads the individual to seek out sexual activity and/or be pleasurably receptive to the partner's initiation (Basson, 2008), is a topic of great interest to researchers and lay people alike.

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The article revealed that, based on survey results, 27 percent of premenopausal women and 34 percent of postmenopausal women were very dissatisfied with their current level of sexual desire. Most of the women had not discussed their low sexual desire with their health care providers; they reported that they felt uncomfortable or embarrassed discussing the issue, and/or they were unaware that it is a medical condition that can be treated.

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Loss of sexual desire is the most common problem for women [21].

The survey of sexual functioning of women with children and without children and its relationship to marital satisfaction