Sex Video Chat Article

Libido

Libido in its common usage means sexual desire and the free creative—or psychic—energy an individual has to put toward personal development or individuation.

Sigmund Freud (the father of modern psychology) popularized the term and defined libido as the instinct energy or force, contained in what Freud called the identification, largely the loss of the consciousness component of the psychology. Freud pointed out that these libidinal drives can conflict with the conventions of civilized behavior. It is this need to conform to society and control the libido that leads to tension and disturbance in the individual, prompting the use of ego defenses to dissipate the psychic energy of these unmet and mostly unconscious needs into other forms. Excessive use of ego defenses results in neurosis. A primary goal of psychological analysis is to bring the drives of the identification into consciousness, allowing them to be met directly and thus reducing the patient's reliance on ego defenses.

Defined more narrowly, libido also refers to an individual's urge to engage in sexual activity.

Libido impairment

Sometimes sexual desire can be impaired or reduced. Factors of reduced libido can be both psychological and physical. Loss of libido may or may not correlate with infertility.

Psychological factors

Reduction in libido can occur from psychological causes such as loss of privacy and/or intimacy, stress, distraction or depression. It may also derive from the presence of environmental stressors such as prolonged exposure to elevated sound levels or bright light. A comprehensive list of stressors include:

• depression
• stress or fatigue
• childhood sexual abuse, assault, or trauma
• body image issues
• adultery or attraction outside marriage
• lack of interest/attraction in partner
• sexual performance anxiety

Physical factors

Physical factors that can affect libido are lifestyle factors, medications and, accordingly to studies, the attractiveness and biological fitness of one's partner.

Lifestyle

Being very underweight, severely obese, or malnourished can cause a low libido due to disruptions in normal hormonal levels

Medications

Reduced libido is also often iatrogenic and can be caused by many medications, such as hormonal contraception,and other antidepressants, and beta blockers. In some cases iatrogenic impotence or other sexual dysfunction can be permanent, as in PSSD.

Testosterone is one of the hormones controlling libido in human beings. Emerging research is showing that hormonal contraception methods like "the pill" (which rely on estrogen and progesterone together) are causing low libido in females by elevating levels of Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG). SHBG binds to sex hormones, including testosterone, rendering them unavailable. Research is showing that even after ending a hormonal contraceptive method, SHBG levels remain elevated and no reliable data exists to predict when this phenomenon will diminish. Some question whether "the pill" and other hormonal methods (Depo-Provera, Norplant, etc) have permanently altered gene expression by epigenetic mechanisms. Affected women may seek herbal and hormonal therapies. Left untreated, women with low testosterone levels will experience loss of libido, relationship stress and loss of bone and muscle and tissue mass throughout their lives. (Low testosterone may also be behind certain kinds of depression and low energy states.)

Conversely, increased androgen steroids (e.g. testosterone) generally have a positive correlation with libido in both sexes.

Menstrual cycle

A study done in Canada suggests that men's libido levels are also sometimes correlated to their female partner's monthly cycle. Women's libido is correlated to their menstrual cycle. Many women experience heightened sexual desire in the several days immediately before ovulation.

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Libido is the term that the noted founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, used to label the sexual drive or sexual instinct. He noted that the sexual drive is characterized by a gradual buildup to a peak of intensity, followed by a sudden decrease of excitement.

As he studied this process in his patients, Freud concluded that various activities like eating and drinking, as well as urination and defecation share this common pattern. Consequently, he regarded these behaviors as sexual or libidinous as well.

Freud also became interested in the development of the libido, which he saw as the basic and most powerful human drive. He believed that the development of the libido involved several distinct and identifiable stages.

Freud's Theory on How Libido Develops
During infancy, he noted, sexual drive is focused on the mouth, primarily manifested in sucking. He labeled this the oral stage of libidinous development. During the second and third years of a child's life, as the child is undergoing toilet training, focus and erotically tinged pleasure shifts to rectal functions. Freud labeled this the anal stage.

Later, during puberty, focus shifts again to the sex organs, a period of development he labeled the phallic stage in the maturation of the libido.

During the later stage of development, libidinal drives focus at first on the parent of the opposite sex and add an erotic coloring to the child's experience of his/her parents. Parental disapproval of uncontrolled libidinal drive, Freud believed,leads to the development of a human psyche that is made up of three components; the id, the ego and the superego. He concluded that the id, or basic set of instincts and drives (including the libido but also other drives like aggression), provides the psychic energy needed to initiate activities.

The ego, an executive function, directs the day-to-day fulfillment of libidinous and other desires in socially acceptable and achievable ways.

The superego labels the learned and internalized social standards of behavior, including an awareness of banned or punishable behaviors. During wakeful periods, strong boundaries separate these three arenas, but during sleep and fantasy the boundaries weaken, giving rise to open expression of otherwise controlled libidinous desires. Conscious awareness of these unrestrained desires and fantasies can cause the person to feel sexual guilt or shame.

Freud believed that an individual's personality is established early on in life and is determined by the ways in which basic drives and impulses such as libido are satisfied. Failure to satisfy libidinal and other drives leads to their repression with resulting consequences for the development of an individual's personality and psychological health.