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A major contribution of [[psychoanalysis ]] to [[human ]] [[understanding ]] is its explanation of [[neurotic ]] [[mental ]] disorders in [[terms ]] of [[fixation ]] or [[regression ]] of the [[libido]]. Libido, a [[Latin ]] term [[meaning ]] [[desire]], [[want]], amorous [[desire, ]] is defined as the [[instinctual ]] [[sexual ]] [[energy ]] underlying all mental [[activity]]. Psychoanalysis saw [[libidinal ]] [[development ]] as spanning the [[whole ]] [[psychosexual ]] evolution of the [[individual ]] from [[birth ]] to [[adulthood]], as reconstructed in [[psychoanalytic ]] [[treatment]]. Such treatment takes into account the early phases in the organizationof the libido, the [[psychic]] [[structure]] that results from the individual's [[Oedipus]] [[complex]] and the modes of its [[resolution]], the adolescent [[phase]], and the resulting [[genital]] organization of the [[adult]] and [[choice]] of [[object]]. Development, which involves [[stages]], phases, and periods of organization, is a transformation from an original [[state]] to a state of completion. From a libidinal point of view, this final state is the state of adult [[sexuality]], which [[Freud]] considered to be the end point of the [[infantile]] sexuality [[present]] in different forms in different phases.At the [[time]], this [[idea]] of [[infantile sexuality]] provoked a strong reaction in the [[scientific]] [[world]], which rejected psychoanalysis as [[being]] "pansexual." The [[affirmation]] of infantile sexuality may well have scandalized the world far more than [[other]] important [[ideas]] in psychoanalysis, such as the [[notion]] of [[dreams]] having a meaning and the [[existence]] of an [[unconscious]] psychic [[life]]. The notion of the libido appears in Freud's writings as early as his letters to Wilhelm [[Fliess]], but Freud used it in the general [[sense]] used by late-nineteenth-century authors who began to take an interest in human sexuality, particularly Albert Moll and Richard Krafft-Ebbing, who studied sexual psychopathies. In 1905, however, Freud defined the libido in [[Three]] essays on the [[theory]] of sexuality in reference to the theory of [[instincts]], thus founding the psychoanalytic conception of psychic functioning. These essays invite us to follow the evolution of the sexual [[instinct]] in the individual in accordance with specific phases of psychic organization, as well as their consequences in terms of [[people]]'s psychic [[reality]] and the [[nature]] and characteristics of the relations people establish with [[others]]. Psychoanalysis thus concentrates more on the [[dynamic]] [[character]] of sexuality and its [[role]] in the unconscious, rather than seeking to describe it as a succession of [[temporal]] stages. The [[sexual instinct]] during [[pregenital]] phases is auto-[[erotic]] and is linked to [[particular]] zones (the [[oral]] cavity, anus), the location of this erotic [[pleasure]] depending on the degree of maturity (sucking in infancy, the pleasure of stool retention and [[expulsion]] when acquiring sphincter [[control]]). Freud made direct observations, which he then described, such as the pleasure of the [[baby]] feeding at its [[mother]]'s [[breast]] or the adolescent masturbating. In these pregenital stages the sexual instinct consists of component instincts such as the [[sadistic]] instinct, the instinct for [[knowledge]], the instinct for [[mastery]], these nonerotic components being directed toward the object. (These component instincts often appear as pairs of opposites, for example, the instinct to see and be seen.) The great variety and diversity of these component instincts led Freud to declare that [[children]] were polymorphously [[perverse]], each of these instincts being capable of continuing later in life in certain adult perversions ([[voyeurism]] and [[sadism]], for [[instance]]). But this predisposition could also "be regarded as the source of a [[number]] of our virtues, in so far as through reaction-[[formation]] it stimulates their development" (Freud, 1905d, p. 239). In the course of a later phase situated between the ages of three and six, the component instincts are [[unified]] and organized under the primacy of the genital zone. Then the individual discovers the [[anatomical]] [[difference]] between the [[sexes]] (for Freud, this was limited in both sexes to the [[presence]] or [[absence]] of a [[penis]]). This discovery opens the way to, and organizes, the [[phallic]] phase from the fourth year onward. The reaction to this discovery is very different in boys and girls: boys now find themselves confronted with the [[oedipal]] problem and [[castration]] [[anxiety]]. The early [[dual]] [[relationship]] of mother and son is then followed by a [[triangular]] relationship involving both [[parents]], a [[situation]] rich in [[conflict]]. Freud called this the [[Oedipus complex]], the resolution of which leads to a [[psychic structure]] that includes the [[superego]], through the [[internalization]] of parental prohibitions. This "[[childhood]] [[neurosis]]" constitutes the original nucleus of all adult [[neuroses]]. This first period of infantile sexuality is followed by a [[latency]] period that is quiet in comparison to the efflorescence of the previous period. Sexual development now comes to a halt or regresses. Previously persistent tendencies succumb to [[moral]] [[repression]] and moral reactions; [[shame]] and disgust make their [[appearance]]. During adolescence the thrust of [[puberty]] brings the oedipal conflicts to the fore all over again, and their resolution results in the adult genital organization and a definitive object choice. In the course of development the [[child]] takes his or her own [[body]] as a [[love]] object; then the libido turns toward the parents before finally choosing some outsider as an object. This path temporarily leads to a [[homosexual]] object choice and "at the age of puberty boys and girls show clear [[signs]], even in normal cases, of the existence of an affection for people of their own sex" (Freud, 1905d, p. 60), before choosing a heterosexual object. The vicissitudes of this development create fixation points that become way stations in the [[regressive]] psychopathological [[conditions]] of the adult. Many authors after Freud set [[about]] describing [[them]], particularly Karl [[Abraham]]. Although libidinal development includes these infantile and adult oral, [[anal]], and genital phases, it is not just a succession of temporal phases that accumulate, overlap each other, and develop concomitantly. [[Structuring]] and organization of the [[agencies]] which takes [[place]] under the effect of "après-coup." This notion of stimulus enables us to account for the reorganizations introduced later in particular circumstances. A [[repressed]] [[memory]], for example, can be transformed "après-coup" into a traumatism. The progressive differentiation of intrapsychic agencies—the ego from the id in early childhood, and the superego as the heir to the Oedipus complex—is one of the achievements of libidinal development and ensures psychic functioning regulated by the pleasure [[principle]] and the [[reality principle]]. Melanie [[Klein]] offered a profound revision of the [[Freudian]] theory of libidinal development by proposing a [[duality]] in the life and [[death]] instincts. She stressed the precocious nature of the superego and the Oedipus complex. She claimed that the triangular structure of the Oedipus complex could be observed well before the beginning of the genital phase and before the child considered [[total]] [[objects]], [[partial]] objects (breast, [[feces]], penis) being the only objects having a role to play at this time. She also stressed the precocious modes of [[object relations]], referring to them not as phases in libidinal organization, but as positions: the [[paranoid]]-schizoid [[position]] and the depressive position. MICHÈLE POLLAK CORNILLOT See also: Activity/passivity; Adolescence; Anality; Antilibidinal ego/internal [[saboteur]]; [[Autoeroticism]]; Bisexuality; Breast, [[good]]/bad object; [[Castration complex]]; Choice of neurosis; "Claims of Psychoanalysis To Scientific Interest"; [[Developmental]] disorders; [[Eroticism]], oral; Fixation; [[Genital love]]; Genital [[stage]]; [[Introjection]]; [[Latency period]]; Libidinal development; Libidinal stage; Libido; [[Masculinity]]/femininity; [[Narcissism]]; Object; Ontogenesis; Orality; [[Oral-sadistic stage]]; [[Oral stage]]; Pregenital; [[Psychosexual development]]; Quasi-independence/transitional stage; Sexual [[drive]]; Sexuality; Stage (or phase); [[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]].[[Bibliography]]  * Abraham, Karl. (1927). A short history of the development of the libido. In Selected papers of Karl Abraham (Douglas Bryan and Alix Strachey, Trans.). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1924.) * Brusset, Bernard. (1992). Le développement libidinal. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. * Freud, Sigmund. (1905d). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243. * Green, André. (1990). Le complexe de castration. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. * Klein, Melanie. (1932). The psycho-analysis of children (Alix Strachey, Trans.). London: Hogarth. * Perron, Roger, and Perron-Borelli, Michèle. (1994). Le complexe d'Œdipe. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Further [[Reading]]  * Peller, Lili E. (1965). Comments on libidinal organizations and child development. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 13, 732-7.