Partial localized sexuality release expands rather than drains aggressiveness

Evidence

The concept of controlled desublimation would imply the possibility of a simultaneous release of repressed sexuality and aggressiveness, a possibility which seems incompatible with Freud’s notion of the fixed quantum of instinctual energy available for distribution between the two primary drives. According to Freud, strengthening of sexuality (libido) would necessarily involve weakening of aggressiveness, and vice versa. However, if the socially permitted and encouraged release of libido would be that of partial and localized sexuality, it would be tantamount to an actual compression of erotic energy, and this desublimation would be compatible with the growth of unsublimated as well as sublimated forms of aggressiveness. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 341

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharply defines ‘controlled desublimation’ against Freud’s fixed-quantum model of libido.
• XREF: connects to: Mechanized environments shrink erotic experience down to localized sexuality. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 327; Proliferating erotic imagery atrophies rather than stimulates individual sexual fantasy — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2463