Libido

Libido (Latin, libido, “pleasure” or “lust”), in psychoanalytic theory, the energy of the id or major portion of the unconscious mind, responsible for acts of creation. According to the theories of Sigmund Freud, which laid the basis of psychoanalysis, the libido is the sex instinct, and artistic creation is an expression of the sex instinct that has been rechannelled; the ego serves to modify behaviour by controlling the socially unacceptable urges of the id. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung rejected the sexual basis of the libido, believing that the force behind drives to act and create is merely an expression of the general will to live.