Psychical inertia

Psychical inertia is a term introduced by Carl Jung 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/her age-appropriate tasks in life.[1]

Freudian and other developments

Freud argued that such psychic inertia played a part in the lives of the normal, as well as of the neurotic,[2] and saw its origins in fixation between early instincts and their first impressions of significant objects.[3] As late as Civilization and its Discontents, he considered as a major obstacle to cultural development "the inertia of the libido, its disinclination to give up an old position for a new one".[4]

Later Jungians have seen psychic inertia as a force of nature reflecting both internal and outer determinants;[5] while others have seen it as the product of social pressures, especially in relation to ageing.[6]

See also

References
  1. M. Jacoby, Individuation and Narcissism (2013) p. 35
  2. S. Freud, Case Studies II (PFL 9) p. 358-9
  3. S. Freud, On Psychopathology (PFL 10) p. 157-8
  4. S. Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (PFL 129) p. 298
  5. K. Evera-Fahey, Towards a Jungian Theory of the Ego (2016) p. 68-9
  6. L. Woodward ed., Figuring Age (1999) p. 133 and 141
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