Freud's Account of Human Sexuality and Human Desire
Basically, psychoanalysis and Freud's theories are associated with his theory of sexuality, considering that he regarded all aspects of human life (i.e. beginning with a simple mental disorder up to religious doctrines), as the sexual problems. This comic effect arises also because the question of what Freud used to call sexuality remains outside the attention. If one examines the issue of human sexuality in the works of Freud in detail, the work of sensual sphere and sphere of desires becomes evident. The phenomenon of Freud, the author of the doctrine of psychoanalysis, is that he was the first to speak on the topic of sexuality from the standpoint of science. His theory, which states that human psychology controls the physiology of sexual intercourse from the standpoint of the subconscious, can be considered the right one. Freud's theory became the focus of the world science and the public, because this issue forced many scientists to rethink their theories about behavioral reactions and functions of human desires.
As is known, psychoanalysis has greatly expanded the concept of sexuality and led it beyond the biological notions of copulation and beyond the psychological views on the role of men and women by means of a discovery that sexuality is not limited to the interaction between the sexes and does not always obey the function of procreation. "But if you think of the function of reproduction as the nucleus of sexuality you are in danger of excluding a number of things that do not aim at reproduction but are certainly sexual, such as onanism or even kissing" (Freud 2013, p. 266). Freud notes that the concept of sexuality and sexual desire should be expanded until it includes notions that are not subjected to the functions of procreation. Inattention to this extension of the concept of sexuality often leads to the vulgarization and incorrect reading of the theory of psychoanalysis. "Freud’s beginning can be usefully understood as part of an effective argumentative strategy to extend the notion of sexuality by showing how extensive it already was" (Neu 2000, p. 144). Here one can say that the majority of people believe that Freud reduces everything to sex and regards dissatisfaction in bed as a cause of all neuroses. The scientist himself talks about this misunderstanding of sexuality: "If we fail to understand these abnormal manifestations of sexuality and are unable to relate them to the normal sexual life, then we cannot understand normal sexuality" (Freud 2003, p. 269). He argues that many of these objections to his theory stem from confusion of sexuality, which introduces psychoneurotic symptoms, with normal an attraction. This confusion can be studied with a deeper examination of Freud's teachings. According to Lear (2005), "Freud never thought that sexuality was the only important force in our lives" (p. 55). In his writings, Freud (2003) defines sexuality as satisfaction, which cannot be reduced to the satisfaction of a physiological need (p. 111). That is, human sexuality has nothing to do with physiology, circulating hormones, and the so-called sexual instinct. According to Neu (2000), Freud "introduces the notion of erotogenic zones (thus extending sexuality beyond the genitals)" (p. 145). Exploring this thesis, it should be assumed that sexual purpose and the way to achieve it are individual for every human; they do not fit into any biological paradigm of a search for an ideal partner for procreation or psychological ideology that men are different from women by their nature. That is why Freud introduces "a distinction between the sexual object, i.e., the person from whom attraction proceeds, and the sexual aim, i.e., the act toward which the instinct tends" (Wollheim 2015, p. 116-117). It follows that sexuality of each person is unique; it creates its own "map" of desires, fields of attraction, and repulsion that represents one's unconscious. This identity and sexual life were the subjects of Freud's psychoanalysis.
A little later, Freud argues that sexuality arises simultaneously with fantasizing that in itself gives grounds to assume a link between them. It follows that people can supplant an actual object by "their own fantastic creations" (Freud 2013, p. 268). Sexuality begins to function only when a human becomes able to create the object of desire by means of a fantasy. For instance, some people "have raised another part of the body to serve as the goal of their desire; the woman's breast, the foot, the tress of hair" (Freud 2013, p. 268). That is, sexuality is not simply a "satisfaction of a physiological need or an implementation of instinct", as it constructs an image of another being and a script of a possible relationship (Mannoni 2015, p. 68).
Referring to sexuality, Freud has to stipulate that sexuality is not limited to the interaction of genitals, sexuality and procreation are not the same, and in general, what is called sexuality outside of psychoanalysis refers only to a restricted sexual life. That is why Lear (2005) claims, "understanding ourselves as essentially erotic – not just sexual – can be an important step in growing up" (p. 86). Three of these remarks are fundamentally important particularly in the infantile sexuality theory, since its manifestations have nothing to do with sexuality. For all its references to the infantile and sexuality, "one thing it totally omits is infantile sexuality", as "there is no admission that the infant has sexual impulses" (Willheim 2015, p. 25). Here one can site an example from Freud's studies on the sexual nature of breastfeeding. This process has nothing to do with sexual function. Both mother and child interact with each other, sharing a pleasure or sometimes displeasure. This process takes place for the purpose of satisfying hunger, and yet has a sexual character: "The sucking at the mother's breast becomes the term of departure for all of sexual life, the unattained ideal of later sex gratification, to which the imagination often reverts in times of need" (Freud 2013, p. 275). It stands to reason that Freud (2013) says that there are two most powerful human feelings, i.e. hunger and love, in mother's breast (p. 275). Similarly, all other drives: i.e. anal, visual, and oral, are associated with bodily pleasures, however, they are still far away from the purposes of reproduction and interaction of genitals, as they represent only the culmination. Wilheim (2015) states, "The development of sexuality is now neatly characterized as a linear progression moving through the various pregenital organizations of the libido – the oral, the anal, the phallic, in that order – culminating in the genital organization" (p. 124). Nevertheless, they may be involved in the game of love between people. For example, a body examination is almost an integral part of any ritual courtship and intercourse. A visual attraction, according to Freud (2013), is a source of curiosity, desire to know, and, as a consequence, the development of science and art (p. 80). "In dreams we perceive a thing for the most part in visual forms" (Freud 2013, p. 81). That is, any desire does not always find the shortest and direct route to one's goals, does not always serve the purposes of copulation between individuals and the idea of procreation, and can be aimed at very different sexual purpose. Satisfaction does not always bring pleasure. "And if pleasure were simply equated with the gratification of one's wishes, then any restriction on the gratification by the superego would be a source of unhappiness" (Lear 2005, p. 202). For example, any psychological suffering, any symptom, in Freud's (2013) view, is a compromise between reality and the unconscious and is the only possible way to satisfy sexual instincts of a man (p. 81). Thus, any desire finds its satisfaction, but the price to pay for this is sometimes distress. This is what Freud (2013) means when he speaks of the sexual etiology of neurosis (p. 242).
According to Mannoni (2015), it is necessary to study the term such as "libido" in order to understand the views of Freud with respect to sexuality (p. 13). This concept plays an important role in the study of human sexuality and attraction. "One can only be impressed by the way Freud treated the contributions of the libido received by the ego: Whatever their origin, he adds them together" (Mannoni 2015, p. 136). If one look at the libido as a concept, Freud's views and positions become clearer. In the primitive sense, libido is a sexual attraction, or predisposition for mating: "Libido, analogous to hunger, is the force through which the instinct, here the sex instinct (as in the case of hunger it is the instinct to eat) expresses itself" (Freud 2013, p. 274). The term is used in this sense in Sigmund Freud's writings, whose philosophy is the philosophy of the unconscious impulses that occur at a subconscious level. In scientific terms, libido is the life potential of any biological specimens, which forms the reproductive ability (Willheim 2015, p. 235).
Freud interprets health and deviant psyche as a result of the evolution of the libido since childhood. This is its basic premise. Freud attributed the great importance to what he called "the sensual current (libido), and found it widely present— in particular in infantile development, family relations, and the sublimated forms of higher cultural activity (from science to art to making and hoarding money)" (Neu 2000, pp. 92-93). His psychoanalysis involves the study of the evolution of the mind and the libido as the main exponent of mental health and health in general. Psychoanalysis is an analysis of the state of the human psyche and the corresponding consequences (Freud 2013, p. 245). Freud (2013) argues that the main driving forces of human behavior are found in the unconscious, which is the seat of the libido (or sexual energy) (p. 245). The latter is the main source of instincts and the instincts for creativity. Their nature is irrational, as they arise in the subconscious. The leading ones are attracted to life (Eros), as the implementation of the libido and the death instinct (Thanatos) (Willheim 2015, p. 147). The latter is accompanied by desire for destruction."The meaning of the evolution of civilization must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in human species" (Willheim 2015, p. 269). Life is a production of itself, so the Eros consists in self-reflexion, while the second attraction is not wealthy because of its destructiveness, due to the lack of self-reflection (Willheim 2015, p. 205). It becomes dull and fades, that is, it does not evolve with time.
Having considered Freud's teachings on sexuality, it becomes clear that the libido is represented also by the unconscious desires that tend to be realized, and there are two important conditions for such implementation. First, libido can be realized, if it finds the sexual object: "The pleasure-striving — the libido, as we term it — chooses its objects without inhibitions, and indeed, prefers those that are forbidden" (Freud 2013, p. 123). Freud writes that the study of the libido becomes available only when the libido founds its mental application to bind to sex objects, i.e. to turn into object-libido. Hence, one can see the way the libido is concentrated on objects, is fixed on them, or leaves these objects, and directs the individual's sexual activity from this position, which leads to satisfaction (Freud 2013, p. 125). This satisfaction can also be called a partial fading libido. Being abstracted from the objects, the libido stays in a state of tension, and finally returns to consciousness. The second condition for the implementation of the libido is its idea in the mind or its passage through the consciousness (Freud 2013, p. 286). This condition is the vehicle of social demands: some unconscious sexual desires allow the existence of the consciousness, while others do not. In the latter case, these desires are repressed typically with transformation to pathology (neurosis, etc.), or sublimation: "Sexual desire relinquishes either its goal of partial gratification of desire, or the goal of desire toward reproduction, and adopts another aim, genetically related to the abandoned one, save that it is no longer sexual but must be termed social" (Freud 2013, p. 303). That is, the output and application of the libido energy is put in other areas, for example, in the scientific, artistic, and spiritual works.
One can say that Freud created the following scenario of human sexuality. Initially, the libido in childhood is not in accordance with the sexual object. However, in early childhood, it is possible to speak about the origin of sexual activity on the example of breastfeeding mothers (Freud 2013, p. 275). Freud (2013) sates that since this period of the libido is not attached to an object, it can fix temporarily on any objects (p. 275). Hence, Freud makes a fundamental conclusion that the predisposition to deviant forms of sexual behavior is the initial sexual predisposition of man's sexual desire, from which the normal sexual behaviors develops during the maturation period. Freud (2013) points out two main factors that influence the developing or normal sexual behavior or aberrant forms. On the one hand, it is the passed through the consciousness of the culture requirements, for example, shame, compassion, disgust; while on the other hand, it is the choice of a sexual object (Freud 2013, p. 274). Since sexual development is a complex and lengthy process, every step along the path of development can lead to the place of fixation, i.e., to the random sexual object (Lear 2005, p. 75). Any violation of this complex process may lead to the dissociation of sexual desire, that is, become a disruption of a normal development.
Finally, having studied the material in which Freud studies the issue of sexuality, it is possible to conclude that the human desire and the whole sphere of sexual desire are formed on a subconscious level. The strength and type of a desire depends on the way an individual is formed. Human Sexuality depends on the basic education and the various social factors. In fact, the desire of people depends on the libido, which is a kind of the biological energy. According to Freud, the development and orientation of the libido define many aspects of the human development, as well as controls everything that is associated with desires. It turns out that the libido is the basis for the emergence of any human desires, including the emergence and development of love.
Reference List
Freud, S 2013, Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, Lawrence, KS, Digireads.com Publishing, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 13 April 2016.
Lear, J 2005, Freud, New York: Taylor and Francis Ltd, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 13 April 2016.
Mannoni, O 2015, Freud: the Theory of the Unconscious, London; New York: Verso, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 13 April 2016.
Neu, J 2000, 'Tear Is an Intellectual Thing', Oxford University Press (US), Cary, US. Available from: ProQuest ebrary, viewed 13 April 2016.
Wollheim, R 2015, Sigmund Freud, 2nd ed, London: Fontana, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 13 April 2016.
