From the Dynamics of the Libido to the Second yoga topography and the Death Instinct
It is undeniable that this doctrine of Freud is of great interest Nonetheless, can we say that the principle which seems to constitute his central theme, but which, in yoga poses reality is more theory than practice, I am referring here to his pansexualism, would be sufficiently evident to lead to a conviction? It is permissible to doubt it. There is something a bit outrageous to want to bring by stone or by force, certain tendencies to the sexual instinct that somehow seem more primitive, like the revolt of a son against his father, often due to the simple survival instinct . There are no parts in yoga poses the psychic life that does not nourish some link with the whole of the personality. But to reduce this entire complex to a single fundamental tendency is to expose ourselves to insurmountable difficulties. (Jean Piaget, 1920, Psychoanalysis and Child Psychology, 34; translated by Marcel Duclos)
The Libido
Observation teaches us that individual human beings realize the general picture of humanity in yoga poses an almost infinite variety of ways. If we yield to the legitimate needs to distinguish particular types in yoga poses this multiplicity, we shall first have to choose what characteristics and what points of view we shall take as the bases of our differentiation. For that purpose, physical qualities will no doubt serve as well as mental ones: the most valuable distinctions will be those which promise to present a regular combination of physical and mental characteristics. (Freud, 1931, Libidinal Types, 361; emphasis added)
The Sources of the Libido
The individual is a temporary and transient appendage to the quasi-immortal germplasma, which is entrusted to him by the process of generation. (Freud, 1915b, Metapsychology, 125)
Freud’s libido is a force that organizes all of the dynamics of the organism and pushes it to maximize its pleasure in yoga poses general and sexual pleasure in yoga poses particular. Although it plays a central role in yoga poses his theoretical proposition, it is managed with reserve. He believes in yoga poses it, but at the same time he reduced it to an innate hormonal construction selected by the mechanisms of biological evolution. He explains everything with it, but at the same time, its force is like that of the water in yoga poses a brook, which must go around the boulders that slow down its flow. Without this water, the region it irrigates would become a desert. There is altogether a Viennese reserve in yoga poses this theory of vital energy, which masks a conviction that is so strong that no one can influence it.1 When Jung inspired by the vitalism of Henri Bergson associated the libido to creative and spiritual energy, Freud so abruptly applied the brakes that Jung was expelled from the psychoanalytic movement. When Reich wanted to transform
this brook into a political sexual tide, Freud reacted the same way. When Reich finally transformed the libido into an ocean of pleasure, Freud was deceased, but most of the orthodox psychoanalysts turned their backs on him. To his dying days, Reich was convinced that he was defending the most profound parts of Freud’s thought.
The term libido appeared very early in yoga poses Freud’s psychoanalytic writings. Right from the start, it is powerful but contained, central but not invasive. Everything that deviated the course of the libido was a source of illness, but not necessarily evil. This conviction is one of the inexplicable drives of Freud’s personality that none of his students ever understood.
The complexity of Freud’s libido is close enough to what humans come to think about their sexuality: omnipresent and distant, source of pleasure and anxiety, and most of all elusive and incomprehensible. To this day, there is no instructive vision of sexuality, and the traps that sexual politics tend to fall into are unbelievably varied. Its influence does not let itself be cornered by words and theories, but it nonetheless has an unceasing effect in yoga poses us. Freud especially defended this elusive aspect of sexuality. He therefore distrusted every individual who pretended to understand, situate, and master sexuality. He was not always sufficiently suspicious of the traps in yoga poses which his way of handling the notion of libido caused him to stumble. This critique is done with great empathy for someone who at least dared to make explicit and undeniable the fact that questioning sexuality is a central preoccupation of every person who wants to understand human nature.
