TY - JOUR A1 - Zepf, Siegfried T1 - Libido and psychic energy – Freud's concepts reconsidered JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 19 (No. 1, 2010), pp. 003-014. N2 - The author examines different definitions and applications of the terms >psychic energy< and >libido.< With regard to the >psychic energy< terminology, he shows that its application and usage relate in particular to the perspective of Brenner and not to Freud's definition. He argues that Freud uses the term >psychic energy< as a synonym for >libido,< and not >libido< as a synonym for >psychic energy.< It is demonstrated that in Freud's view, up until 1914, >libido< relates to manifestations of bodily sexual tensions, and subsequently this term applies to the manifestations of sexual energy in the psychic field. The author rejects this change in terminology and also challenges Freud's attempt to use dynamic-economic considerations as an explanatory device for epistemological reasons. Freud's concept of energy is inconsistent with the meaning of energy as defined in the physical sciences, and whereas the metapsychological topographical, dynamic, and structural viewpoints have a solid foundation in the representational world to which the psychoanalytic process affords unique access, this is not true of the economic viewpoint. It is claimed that bodily tensions only exist in the representational world in the form of affects, so that, in the author's opinion, the economic viewpoint should be abandoned in favour of an affective one. In the context of the endeavour to obtain pleasure and avoid unpleasure adduced by Freud, this viewpoint focuses on the relationships between affects and the different elements of the representational world, thereby serving as the subject of metapsychological investigation. Y1 - 2010 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zepf, Siegfried T1 - Consumerism and identity: Some psychoanalytical considerations JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 19 (No. 3, 2010), pp. 144-154. N2 - The author examines the role that the buying of commodities plays in the identity formation of the individual. He concludes that it is nowadays no longer the instrumental utility value but a psychical utility value that influences the decision to buy a commodity and that the psychical utility value can have different functions for consumers. In neurotically structured individuals, normal consuming can end in an identity extension where the individual identifies transitively unconscious scenes with those in advertisements, thus making these unconscious scenes conscious in their guise. When individuals are mainly narcissistically structured, an >identity of commodities< can be found, that is, a non-personal identity formation mediated by commodities in which the individuals identify reflexively with the scenic figures from Internet games, movies, television programs, and commercials. Y1 - 2010 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zepf, Siegfried T1 - Psychoanalysis – On Its Way Down a Dead-End Street? A Concerned Commentary JF - The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 38 (2010), pp. 459-482. Y1 - 2010 ER -