Libido Does Not Cause EverythingIdeas in Psychoanalysis: Libido
...liberate the libido from a fixated stage and allow it to progress and evolve normally, so that an individual can have a healthy sexual existence. This book, unfortunately without a table of contents, is organized by an introduction and six chapters. The first, entitled “No Libido Please, We’re British!” discusses the disappearance of essential libido theory in contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly in Britain. Kennedy then goes into heavy detail in “Freud’s Early Theory of Libido/The Missing Link”. What is notably interesting in this second chapter is Freud’s theory of the roots of anxiety: virginity, erotophobia, women who find their husbands to be unsatisfactory, women whose husbands practice coitus interruptus or who prematurely ejaculate, men who are chronic masturbators, men who force themselves to have intercourse, and men who, for neurotic reasons, refrain from sexual activity altogether. The third and fourth chapters, entitled “Elaboration of Libido Theory/Dammed Libido” and “Development of the Libido/Stages in Life’s Way”, discourse libido’s development, which include the successive and nevertheless overlapping oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages, and, more specifically, how a subject who is said to be “fixed” in one stage develops neurotic and anxious symptoms due to this “fixation”. Kennedy gives some case studies in these chapters, one of which includes one woman, fixated at her anal stage, who would constantly clean, and another telling of one man’s foul foot fetish. The fifth chapter is about “Narcissism and Libido/Self and Love”. This chapter puts heavy emphasis on mental conflict that arises along with the principle of pleasure. In Kennedy’s final chapter, “The Human Subject and the Drives/The Transformation Pathway”, he enlightens the reader with a vision of a Utopian-like society where more time is spent for enjoyment and pleasure—the assuaging of the ravenous and needing-to-be satisfied libido-- and less for alienated labor as well as pent up sexual qualms. This psychology book, although somewhat short in length, is definitely intended for the more intelligent reader, and I believe this to be one of the book’s weaknesses. For the average reader, Sigmund Freud’s complex theories are indeed too confusing, and Kennedy doesn’t offer many explanations of them at all. Kennedy’s book contains direct quotes from Freud’s writings, but he assumes the reader will need no clear clarification. Another weakness of Kennedy’s writing is that he tends to oversimplify cause and effect. He appeals to simple explanations for behaviors, but “the world is a complicated place in which complex causation is the rule rather than the exception” (Smith, 2002). In one instance, Kennedy gives a brief example of a young man named Simon. Simon, at age 17, had attempted to commit suicide twice by cutting his wrists with a razor blade and by suffocating himself with a plastic bag, but the pain of both had reportedly stopped him. Kennedy makes the case very plain and attributes Simon’s mental instability to his wish to avoid growing up. Kennedy wrote that Simon needed “to accept the reality of his maturing body.” Simon, according to Kennedy, also needed to deal better with his sexual desires and quantity of libido that supposedly and inevitable drove him to attempt suicide. It is, however, apparent that suicide cannot be attributed to just one cause. Research has shown --and most psychologists would agree-- that most suicides are due to a combination of events, commonly: the breakup of an intimate relationship, the loss of a loved one, or significant damage to social status (“Causes of Suicide”, 2003). Kennedy does not look past libido, considering it to be the only fundamental cause for Simon’s attempts to end his life and, consequently, the sole determiner of mental and physical ills. Kennedy’s claims made in Libido may be backed by significant research, but Kennedy fails to tell the reader of any. Most of the book is filled with deep theories surrounding libi...