Psychical inertia is a term introduced by
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phil ...
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 or her age-appropriate tasks in life.
Freudian and other developments
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
argued that such psychic inertia played a part in the lives of the normal, as well as of the neurotic, and saw its origins in
fixation between early instincts and their first impressions of significant objects. As late as ''
Civilization and its Discontents
''Civilization and Its Discontents'' is a book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It was written in 1929 and first published in German in 1930 as ''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'' ("The Uneasiness in Civilization"). Exploring what Fre ...
'', he considered as a major obstacle to cultural development "the inertia of the
libido
Libido (; colloquial: sex drive) is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity. Libido is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Biologically, the sex hormones and associated neurotransmitters that act ...
, its disinclination to give up an old position for a new one".
Later Jungians have seen psychic inertia as a force of nature reflecting both internal and outer determinants; while others have seen it as a product of social pressures, especially in relation to ageing.
See also
References
{{Reflist, 2}
External links
Inertia - Hero or Victim
Freudian psychology
Psychoanalytic terminology
Psychological concepts