Libido

1. Sexual drive. 2. In psychoanalysis, the psychic energy from all instinctive biological drives. Libido in Latin means "desire, longing, fancy, lust, or rut." Although the adjective libidinous, meaning lustful, has been used in English for 500 or so years, libido only entered the language in 1913, thanks to Sigmund Freud and other psychoanalysts who applied the term to psychic energy or drive, and especially to the sexual instinct.

* * *

1. Conscious or unconscious sexual desire. 2. Any passionate interest or form of life force. 3. In jungian psychology, synonymous with psychic energy. [L. lust]

- object l. l. invested in the object, in contradistinction to that invested in the ego.

* * *

li·bi·do lə-'bēd-(.)ōalso 'lib-ə-.dōor lə-'bī-(.)dō n, pl -dos

1) instinctual psychic energy that in psychoanalytic theory is derived from primitive biological urges (as for sexual pleasure or self-preservation) and that is expressed in conscious activity

2) sexual drive

* * *

n.

the sexual drive: the term is often used to refer to the intensity of sexual desires. In psychoanalytic theory, the libido (like the death instinct) is said to be one of the fundamental sources of energy for all mental life. The normal course of development (see psychosexual development) can be altered by fixation at one level and by regression.

* * *

li·bi·do (lĭ-beґdo) (lĭ-biґdo) pl. libidґines [L.] 1. sexual desire. 2. the psychic energy derived from instinctive biological drives; in early freudian theory it was restricted to the sexual drive, then expanded to include all expressions of love and pleasure, but the concept has evolved to include also the death instinct.