Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXconception of "libido,'* and some of those psycho-analyststo an extreme inwho were at first his disciples even gominimizing what is ordinarily understood as the impulseof sex; similarly F. L. Wells would substitute "hedonic"for "erotic" and "auto-hedonic" for "auto-erotic." Thisenlargement of libido is (as Cyril Burt has pointed out)in accordance with the general tendency of psychology,which now seems to regard the innate tendencies we inheritfrom our animal ancestors as merely specific differentiationsof a single life-impulse. And McDougall, en^larging his earlier more rigid delimitation of instincts,is now almost inclined to unify them as part of "the greatpurpose which animates all living beings, whose end wecan only dimly conceive and vaguely describe as the perpetuationand increase of life."It is,in his muchindeed, interesting to note that Jung criticized enlargement of the connotation of "libido," beyondthe earlier Freudian exclusively sexual sense, wasreally returning to the original classical sense of "passionor desire in general." It thus comes into line withSchopenhauer's "Will" and Bergson's "dan vital," andBurt is able to define it as general conative energy proceedingfrom all the instincts.If we are to use the word "instinct," let it be added,it seems best to regard an instinct as more primitive andfundamental than emotion, and not, as has sometimesbeen done, to regard emotional qualities as a central partof instinct. Where "instincts" are concerned, we are perhapsjustified (with Garnett) in considering ourselves inthe presence of conational rather than emotional systems.The associated impulseis that of a fundamental conation.Freud once suggested (in 1918) that the instinctivefactor in lifemayform the nucleus of that subliminal[358]