Editing Psychoanalysis (section)

=== Life and death drive - the operators of Libido ===
In ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'', Freud cites Plato's myth of the ''[[spherical people]]'' as evidence that his theory of the drives strictly conservative character already had a precursor in antiquity. Plato's character Aristophanes tells how this hermaphroditic, dangerously powerful sphere was 'analytical' cut up into many isolated individuals, carried out by Zeus to punish and weaken the [[Aggression (disambiguation)|aggressor]] for its attack 'on heaven' (similar to how he created [[Pandora]] to [[Divide and conquer|devide and rule]] the Titan's cause of their revolt). As a result of this divine surgical opperation it seems as if a completely new kind of organism has been created here by abolition of the former. However, the need for lustful union makes these weak artificial humans strive to restore their strong original state (see the round of artists, philosophers and others in Plato's ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposion]]'').<ref>Sigmund Freud: ''Jenseits des Lustprinzips''. In: Sigmund Freud: ''Psychologie des Unbewußten'' (= ''Studienausgabe'' Band 3), Frankfurt am Main 1975, S. 213–272, hier: 266. Vgl. [[Gerasimos Santas]]: ''Plato and Freud. Two Theories of Love'', Oxford 1988, S. 160–162.</ref> Accordingly, Freuds libido as the desiring energy of this process contains two complementary opperators: The ''[[death drive]]'' or ''destrudo'', which has a decomposing effect on complex extern factors, and the ''[[life drive]]'', whose action consists of reassembling the singel products of decomposition in a way that serves the organism.<ref>{{citation|author=Sigmund Freud |date=1967 |edition=5. |pages=57 ff |periodical=Gesammelte Werke |publisher=S. Fischer |title=Jenseits des Lustprinzips |volume=13}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

The myth is about three different organism: gods and spherical people given as nature, and the artificial humans. Taking a look at the phenomenon of nutrition can resolve confusion about the complementary pursuit of libido: An animal was shot with ‘bow and arrow’ and its flesh must be broken down into pieces, finally up to the size of different types of molecules (destruction by the [[Gastric acid|stomach acid]]); only after this the hunter's organism is able to integrate those substances that are suitable for its regeneration, growth and reproduction. Analogously in the hunter's mind: his thinking process analyses complex phenomena in order to understand each single part from bottom up; it then synthesises the useful ones into new ideas, strategies, models that shall [[Reality principle|fit to reality]], complementing the id's [[Pleasure principle (psychology)|pleasure principle]]. The meaning of ''psycho-analysis'', therefore, lies not literally in the latter [[Terminology|term]], but in both, analysis as well as synthesis.