CHAPTER III
The Conception of Libido
Freud had already introduced the idea of libido in his[1] "Three
Contributions to the Sexual Theory" in the following words:
"In biology, the fact that both mankind and animals have a sexual want is expressed by the conception of the sexual desire. This is done by analogy with the want of nourishment, so-called hunger. Popular speech has no corresponding characterization for the word "hunger," and so science uses the word "libido."
In Freud's definition, the term "libido" appears as exclusively a sexual desire. "Libido" as a medical term is certainly used for sexual desire, and especially for sexual lust. But the classical definition of this word as found in Cicero, Sallust, and others, was not so exclusive. The word is there used in a more general sense for every passionate desire. I only just mention this definition here, as further on it plays an important part in our considerations, and as it is important to know that the term "libido" has really a much wider meaning than is associated with it through medical language.
The idea of libido (while maintaining its sexual meaning in the author's sense as long as possible) offers us the dynamic value which we are seeking in order to explain the shifting of the psychological scenery. With this conception it is much simpler to formulate the phenomena in question, instead of by the incomprehensible substitution of the homo- by the hetero-sexual component. We may say now that the libido has gradually withdrawn from its homo-sexual manifestation and is transferred in the same measure into a hetero-sexual manifestation. Thus the homo-sexual component practically disappears. It remains only an empty possibility, signifying nothing in itself. Its very existence, therefore, is rightly denied by the laity, just as we doubt the possibility that any man selected at random would turn out to be a murderer. By the use of this conception of libido many rela-*
- ↑ No. 7 of this Monograph Series.
