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"Animal vitality"

Posted by Ortin on November 21, 2001

In Reply to: "Animal vitality" posted by Bruce Kahl on November 20, 2001

: : : What is the specific meaning of "animal vitality"? How is it different from other kinds of vitality? Is a distinction from some kind of mental or spiritual vitality recognized?

: : well it's quite an obvious sexual reference isn't it?
: : e.g. Stan Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire

: Freud, Jung and Adler often spoke of the "triadic nature" of the subconsciousness. Popularly, we know it as the ego, id and superego.

: Freud called "etheric vitality" or "animal vitality" a "dense jungle" consisting of temper, aggression, anger, passion, sexuality etc.

Well, you are surely right that this was Freud's idea of where animal vitality fits into the facts of psychological life. But I still wonder about the general use of the phrase. And about how it compares and differs with other sorts of vitality.

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