Psychical inertia
Psychical inertia is a term introduced by Carl Jung to describe the psyche's resistance to development and change. He considered it one of the main reason for the neurotic opposing, or shrinking from, his/her age-appropriate tasks in life.[1]
Freudian and other developments
Freud argued that such psychic inertia played a part in the lives of the normal, as well as of the neurotic,[2] and saw its origins in fixation between early instincts and their first impressions of significant objects.[3] As late as Civilization and its Discontents, he considered as a major obstacle to cultural development "the inertia of the libido, its disinclination to give up an old position for a new one".[4]
Later Jungians have seen psychic inertia as a force of nature reflecting both internal and outer determinants;[5] while others have seen it as the product of social pressures, especially in relation to ageing.[6]
See also
References
- ^ M. Jacoby, Individuation and Narcissism (2013) p. 35
- ^ S. Freud, Case Studies II (PFL 9) p. 358-9
- ^ S. Freud, On Psychopathology (PFL 10) p. 157-8
- ^ S. Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (PFL 129) p. 298
- ^ K. Evera-Fahey, Towards a Jungian Theory of the Ego (2016) p. 68-9
- ^ L. Woodward ed., Figuring Age (1999) p. 133 and 141