Eros: what is the life drive according to Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis

Although the concept of eroticism is generally related to sex, the truth is that it is not limited to him: eroticism also includes a part of sensuality, infatuation, bonding, play and vitality. And in fact, it is something that does not even have to refer to a human being: a theme, idea or even landscape can seem to us in a certain sense erotic. Eroticism is an aspect very worked on by numerous authors, probably one of the best known Sigmund Freud, who identified Eros and sexual energy or libido as the fundamental pieces of psychic life. And it is about this author's vision of the concept that we are going to talk throughout this article.

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Drives as a fundamental element of psychic life

To understand the concept of Eros from the psychoanalytic perspective, it is first necessary to know the concept of drive and its importance in the human psyche.

The name of drive is given to all that impulse or force that leads the subject to carry out some type of action, generally in order to satisfy some type of need. These are powerful forces that arise in a state of bodily tension, which seeks to be resolved.

The drive is ultimately the origin of all mental activity, being the psychic representative of the body's somatic stimuli, and consists of a source (organ from which the drive), force (degree of drive to action), goal (satisfaction of arousal) and object (what the satisfies).

It is therefore one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, together with the unconscious, when it comes to explaining psychic life. Specifically, it is part of the so-called economic model of the Freud personality, which attempts to explain human performance as a product of the attempt to resolve states of bodily tension.

The author considered that the psychic energy that governs our behavior was based on sexual drives, integrating these in the concept of libido (which would not only include sex but if it considers it as the main force) and being linked to the search for satisfaction and pleasure. From this idea, which would later include not only sexual energy but also that dedicated to self-preservation, the notion of life drive arises, also known as Eros.

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Eros: life drive

The name of Eros or life drive receives the generating impulse of activation and excitation at the organic level that appears with the main objective of ensure survival and keep living matter together and integrated, generally seeking to generate increasingly complex unions and the satisfaction of needs, especially sexual ones.

This type of drive integrates two concepts that Freud initially considered separate: the sexual drive and the drive for self-construction. It is a force that generates dynamism and activity, leading to behavior and the search for satisfaction.

This principle is based on the pleasure principle, according to which the psyche has as its main function that of seek pleasure and avoid displeasure. This is achieved from the search for stress reduction. It is also influenced and mediated by the reality principle: depending on the consideration that the drive can be inadequate or unattainable (something that is linked to the self and the superego), we can sublimate it and reach a partial gratification through of a rodeo.

Eros also leads us to maintain relationships both with ourselves and with others, allowing the appearance of closeness and identification with others.

There are multiple acts in which Eros is expressed, resulting in the life drive easily visible: in addition to sex, food, defecation, kisses and caresses or dreams are examples of this. It requires an object to be directed to and from which to obtain gratification.

A fundamental concept in psychoanalysis

The concept of life drive and Eros is one of the core elements of Freud's theory, along with ideas of the unconscious and intrapsychic conflicts.

One of the elements in which it influences to a great extent is in the Freudian vision of the psychosexual development, in which the focus of sexual gratification varies throughout development (passing through the mouth, the anus, the phallus and the genitals) and there may be fixations that produce difficulties pathological. It is also basic in the generation of conflicts between the Id (unconscious desires and impulses) and the I, making the latter that the reality principle is applied and produced a balance between censorship and impulse satisfaction.

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His relationship with the Thanatos

Although the idea of ​​libido and sexual drive existed long before in Freud's thought, the The concept of Eros was born at the same time as that of a type of drive opposed to this: the death drive or Thanatos.

Both concepts are completely opposite: Eros is life and vitality, dynamism, sexuality and the search for pleasure and survival while Thanatos represents the unconscious death wish, back to the inorganic, of regression, rest and dissolution. Eros is union and Thanatos disintegration.

However to interdependent drives that appear together and even merge in part, leading to different types of behavior. In fact, there is no human action in which both components do not exist. In conclusion: there is no death without life or life without death.

Bibliographic references:

• Freud, S. (1976). Beyond the pleasure principle OC XVIII 1920; 1-62.