daaf brouwers

Freud saw all human behavior as motivated by the drives or instincts, which in turn are the neurological representations of physical needs. At first, he referred to them as the life instincts. 

 These instincts perpetuate:

(a) The life of the individual, by motivating him or her to seek food and water. 

(b) The life of the species, by motivating him or her to have sex. 

 The motivational energy of these life instincts, the "oomph" that powers our psyches, he called libido, from the Latin word for "I desire." 

 Freud's clinical experience led him to view sex as much more important in the dynamics of the psyche than other needs. We are, after all, social creatures, and sex is the most social of needs. Plus, we have to remember that Freud included much more than intercourse in the term sex! Anyway, libido has come to mean, not any old drive, but the sex drive. 

 So, Eros (one more definition of the life drive/instinct, libido) is concerned with the preservation of life and the preservation of the species, It thus appears as basic need for health, safety and sustenance and through sexual drives. It seeks both to preserve life and to create life.

 Eros is associated with positive emotions of love, and hence pro-social behavior, cooperation, collaboration and other behaviors that support harmonious societies.