Libido
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1. Etymology
Libido (Latin: desire, longing) in Jung means psychic energy in general—appetite in its natural state—not Freud’s predominantly sexual drive alone. Related: energy; gradient / progression–regression; fantasy-images as forms of libido.
2. Plain summary
Libido is the psyche’s fuel—desire, impulse, intensity—appearing only in definite forms (images, hungers, affects). Jung kept the word’s older sense: not sex alone, but life-energy that can take nutritional, emotional, sexual, and many other shapes. You never meet “raw” libido; you meet the fantasies and needs that carry it.
When libido is low (depression), it has often backed up into the unconscious to stir compensatory contents. When it flows, it needs a gradient—like water. Releasing stuck energy means bringing up the corresponding fantasy-images, not moralizing the appetite away. Related to compensation, opposites, and the transcendent function.
Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common libido-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):
psychic energy in general; identical with fantasy-images in apprehension; release via corresponding images; distance from Freudian exclusively sexual meaning; manifestations of energy / conservation analogy; desire or impulse unchecked by authority; appetite in natural state; bodily needs (hunger, thirst, sleep, sex) and affects as essence; life-energy neutral in character; limited quantity and indestructible (energic metaphor); intensity as value/importance marker; pre-oedipal nutritional/alimentary forms; bridging bodily zones and object relations; water/gradient metaphor; lack of libido as regression to compensate consciousness; progression vs regression of energy; relation to complex charge; inflation as flooded identification; shadow / anima as libido carriers; active imagination as engagement with image-forms of energy.
3. Academic elucidation
In analytical psychology libido is a general energic concept for psychic intensity, deliberately broadened beyond sexual monocausality while retaining metaphoric kinship with physical energy conservation. Lexica treat Jung’s libido and energy as largely interchangeable. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4 so lexicon paraphrase never silently becomes Jung’s voice
4. Lexicon
Sharp (1991)
Libido. Psychic energy in general. … Libido can never be apprehended except in a definite form; that is to say, it is identical with fantasy-images. … Jung specifically distanced his concept of libido from that of Freud… Subjectively and psychologically, this energy is conceived as desire. I call it libido, using the word in its original sense, which is by no means only sexual. … Libido is appetite in its natural state.
(Sharp, 1991)
Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986)
Energy … Jung used this term and ‘libido’ interchangeably… psychic energy is said to be limited in quantity and indestructible… What is disputed is the exclusively sexual character which Freud assigned to libido or psychic energy. Jung’s conception is closer to that of a form of life-energy, neutral in character…
(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, pp. 53–54)
5. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive
By libido I mean psychic energy. Psychic energy is the intensity of a psychic process, its psychological value. … I often use “libido” promiscuously with “energy.”
(Jung, 1921/1971, CW 6, p. 630, ¶778)
It allowed me to identify “psychic energy” with “libido.” The latter term denotes a desire or impulse which is unchecked by any kind of authority, moral or otherwise. Libido is appetite in its natural state. From the genetic point of view it is bodily needs like hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex, and emotional states or affects, which constitute the essence of libido.
(Jung, 1912/1967, CW 5, pp. 212–213, ¶194)
All psychological phenomena can be considered as manifestations of energy… Subjectively and psychologically, this energy is conceived as desire. I call it libido, using the word in its original sense, which is by no means only sexual.
(Jung, 1916/1961, CW 4, p. 247, ¶567)
Libido can never be apprehended except in a definite form; that is to say, it is identical with fantasy-images. And we can only release it from the grip of the unconscious by bringing up the corresponding fantasy-images.
(Jung, 1928/1966, CW 7, p. 295, ¶345)
See also: compensation; opposites; transcendent function; complex; inflation; active imagination; shadow; anima; individuation; self. unconscious. quaternity.
References
Jung, C. G. (1961). Psychoanalysis and neurosis. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 4, p. 247, ¶567). Pantheon / Bollingen. (Original work published 1916)
Jung, C. G. (1966). The relations between the ego and the unconscious. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 7, p. 295, ¶345). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928)
Jung, C. G. (1967). Symbols of transformation. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 5, pp. 212–213, ¶194). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1912)
Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 6, p. 630, ¶778). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921)
Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis. Routledge.
Sharp, D. (1991). Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts. Inner City Books.