Libido

by Roger Kennedy

Published 8 October 2001
Ideas in Psychoanalysis is a series of essays which explain psychoanalytical concepts, their relevance to everyday life and their ability to illuminate the nature of human society and culture. Our drives and desires, according to Freud, do not merely motivate our actions. It is through them that we invest value in our world, and come to recognise ourselves within it. Freud's infamous centring of sex within psychoanalysis is explained by his idea of the libido; where it comes from, what it does and to where it may lead.