The Libido Theory

And perhaps the most important reason for why government may not turn a losing situation into a winning one whereas banks will most likely have the autonomy and freedom to turn a losing situation into a winning one is because we in the West are amidst a loss in the balance of power dispute with the East. We have essentially lost a balance of power dispute with the East, and this loss alone can explain virtually everything else. Signs of this loss come from a mental health crisis, Havana Syndrome, and many other ailments and issues of an economic, ecological, political, and social nature. 

And where does one get the energy or the “fire” to overcome the loss and turn the loss into a winning situation? As mentioned before, this energy – or “libido” to borrow from Sigmund Freud – has otherworldly and outer body dimensions and origins. Getting the energy does not come from a swipe of a magic wand or a magic pill. Freud made a distinction between “ego-libido” and “object-libido” and how the former is characterized by megalomania and narcissism whereas the latter is characterized by love and romance. Failure to attain the object of love and romance as well as the inversion of the libido towards the ego and towards the self are sure signs of neurosis. Fear is the consequence and outcome of an “unsatisfied libido” as Freud argued, and thus fear and mental health issues are quite common in our society. 

In essence, there is a “chemism” or chemistry involved in our psychosocial and psychosexual functions and operations as a society and in our interactions as a people and in the outcomes of our interactions which we overlook or miss or even deliberately ignore and suppress because of convention, culture, and so-called morality. The most important part of mental life, as Freud mentioned, is “arriving at an object” through the mysterious and obscure workings of the life-energy which is the libido. The libido is “distinguished from the nutritive processes by a special chemistry” to borrow from Freud. 

In turn, the “libido theory” is one theory amidst an array of social theories which can explain everything. It seeks to be parsimonious, as in the case of all other social theories. As Carl Jung argued: “The secret of the development of culture lies in the mobility of the libido, and in its capacity for transference.” Hence, it is counterproductive for society when the libido is “damned up to an unusual degree by the lack of application to reality.” Jung argued: “The erotic impression works in the unconscious, and, in its stead, pushes symbols forth into consciousness.” Jung added: “The indirect course of the libido seems to be a way of sorrow.” Thus, the libido is an energy which is in need of “projection” onto the broader world, lest the libido is transformed both on an individual level and a collective level in destructive and neurotic ways. God, according to Jung, is “to be considered as the representative of a certain sum of energy.” As a result, if libido explains everything and stands as a parsimonious social theory, then God must explain everything, and as a result, we need to weigh our conceptions of God and morality and religiosity and so forth against conventional and traditional and puritanical conceptions of God which lead to fundamentalism and extremism in a number of societies.