What is the relationship between the will to power and libido as the main driving forces of a person?

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How relevant are these ideas today

4 Answers

  1. The concepts of “will to power” and “libido” are still very relevant. In principle, a person has changed little in their fundamental drives since these ideas were put forward.

    To briefly answer this question, it makes sense to quote excerpts from an essay written by Zat Rana just on this topic (my translation, – E. P.):

    Three schools of thought dominate psychotherapy:

    * the will to pleasure, inspired by the ideas of Sigmund Freud;

    * The will to make sense, based on the work of Viktor Frankl;

    * The will to power, developed by Alfred Adler, but originally formulated by Nietzsche. <…>

    The will to power was central to Nietzsche's work and evolved over time. There is still quite a lot of disagreement about what he meant. Some researchers argue that this was a metaphysical position (about the nature of reality); others that it was an epistemological position (related to cognition), but the most common interpretation is psychological.

    From Nietzsche's point of view, power is a concept that can be understood very broadly; it includes a sense of mastery over oneself and the environment. Nietzsche believed that this is what drives our behavior. From his perspective, a meaningful life is lived when your actions and intentions are aligned with this will to power .

    So, Freud's concept of libido as an erotic drive can be interpreted as the will to pleasure (“I want”). It is mainly associated with fluctuations in sexual energy-a feeling that Freud, as is commonly believed, raised to the absolute.

    The Nietzschean-Adler will to power can be interpreted as an attraction to ” might “(from the word “can”, “can”) and a sense of one's worth, usefulness, and power. Colin Wilson, a British existentialist philosopher, calls the state of fulfillment that occurs when this drive is realized “power consciousness.”

    Frankl's will to meaning can already be attributed to an intellectually intelligent beginning, the ability to see and feel the meaning of life and actively participate in its creation. According to Wilson, the sense of meaning and the consciousness of power are interrelated: with the consciousness of power, a person feels the intensity of meanings, and when experiencing the peak experience of Meaning, a person feels a certain power.

    From the point of view of Indian yoga psychology and modern bio-energetic models, deriving it, we can assume that Freud's libido refers to pranic processes of energy and especially emotional-sexual centre (the”second chakra” below the navel); Adler will to power — to the center of power, social marketing, putting interpersonal boundaries (“third chakra” of the abdomen); Frankl's will to meaning may belong to the centers of rational self-expression and especially insight-comprehension (the” fifth chakra “of the throat and especially the” sixth chakra ” corresponding to the experience of clarity in the head and forehead).

  2. As far as I understand classical psychoanalysis, libido is the energy that a person uses for everything, including in order to achieve power.

    I don't know much about neo-psychoanalysis yet, so I can't say how things are going there. 🙂

    From the ethological point of view, the sexual instinct and the instinct to raise one's status in the group to the highest possible level are two completely independent instincts that can compete with each other. The first one is likely to be stronger, but it depends on the specific individual. Initially, the second one probably descended from the first, but now they can act independently of each other.

  3. These two forces are common to all herd animals. And inherited by man from his predecessors.
    And man differs from animals only in that he can learn to control these forces.
    How we raise puppies or horses to use them to achieve our goals.
    Only in some these libidos are ill-mannered like a stray dog and in others, like a German Shepherd.

  4. Three things rule the world: lust for power, sex, and hunger. This is Freud's saying. Each of these needs, according to Freud, is based on sexual attraction. Currently, there are about 20 areas of psychotherapy based on Freudianism. So the relevance is unconditional. The only question is whether the approach is controversial.

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