Life forces

I’m going to have a problem with definitions in this article. The word energy has too many connotations for me to use it properly here. Nonetheless, I have no choice. In view of this, I will define energy in a particular way that I will use for this article.

It seems that most high level living creatures have an excess store of something like energy that they do not use for mere survival purposes. This is not the same as strength, but is like a willingness to spend energy. If Freud’s technical term ‘Libido’ didn’t have such a sexual connotation, I would use it. What I refer to is something like libido, but it’s not sexual. It is an outpouring of energy that a person has little control over. This excess of energy we observe in animals when they engage in play. It’s when they feel the energy come from them by itself, that they want to play. We see it in grown animals as well as the young.

I’d like to call this special thing psychical energy.

I propose that all of us humans have this excess psychical energy in greater abundance than most animals. In fact, we have it coming out all the time, more or less continously. Imagine to yourself a situation that we frequently observe. Some job needs to be done. We feel that we don’t have the energy. But once we start doing it, we feel it easy to go on doing it, and even enjoy it. As if, in response to a need, our body gives us the psychical energy to go ahead with the task.

Now this energy only comes out when we demand it. And it’s produced not only for physical demands, but for mental ones as well. This is why feeling continuous chronic hate or jealousy for someone is so draining. The psychical energy is abundant, and replenished constantly, but when the drain on it is ceaseless and intense, the strain is tremendous. All of us must have experienced this terrible strain in the midst of an emotional crisis that has lasted for days on end. No great physical activity, but the mental turmoil, even though I don’t think it needs so much ACTUAL energy (If measured in Joules), uses up great reserves of this special psychical energy.

Now, psychical energy seems to be attracted not only to conscious mental needs, but unconscious ones as well. This is why unconscious mental feelings like anger, guilt, and hate can be debilitating. They constantly suck psychical energy out of us, without our knowledge, into a bottomless pit, with nothing to show for it. In cases of depression, people display an excessive desire to sleep. It is my belief that it’s because they want to obtain some temporary relief from the horrible drain. There is a great deal of research going on about how depression is caused by chemical deficiencies, and other such physical phenomena, but I think the root causes of depression are in the mind, and not the brain. The mind certainly causes an effect on the brain, and I think investigation into root causes should start from there.

Strangely enough, if this excess energy is used up in things like creativity, and love (Not obsessive dependence, which is unhealthy, and stems from deeper unconscious causes), it not only seems endless, but actually seems to thrive and grow stronger. I don’t know why this happens. One can almost say that the psychical energy is a life force, and responds positively to life furthering activities. Whereas when used up in activities that negate life, like hate, destruction, and guilt, it grows weaker, and does not come forth readily. Hence the drain.

This is also why it is beneficial to bring out unconscious feelings. Excess psychical energy that was being used up by them can now be freed. An example of how this life force responds to life furthering stimulus can be seen when we see a baby’s smile, or a puppy running to greet you. Something leaps out, and touches the object with love. The life force seems also to give preference to life furthering demands – all other things being equal. That is why when you love, and you create, you feel beautiful, and joyous, even though in your mental mind, unconscious desires and feelings are still there, waiting for a chance to grab energy that has currently been taken up by life furthering activity.

When this life force is constantly prevented from being expressed, and blocked, either by society, or by parents acting as society’s agents, I postulate that it expresses itself in destruction, hate, guilt, narcissism, and all sorts of other mental diseases. Such a person’s vitality goes down. From what I hear, Hitler was a physical wreck by the end of his life. He dragged one of his legs behind him, and moved stifly. A man eaten up by his own life forces that were thwarted, and turned against him.

I can’t prove anything I’ve written here. I don’t pretend to call it science, and I make no such claim. This is just a simple theory that I’ve put together to explain what I observe and feel inside me, and inside others.