“A whole dimension of human activity and passivity has been de-eroticized. The environment from which the individual could obtain pleasure—which he could cathect as gratifying almost as an extended zone of the body—has been rigidly reduced. Consequently, the “universe” of libidinous cathexis is likewise reduced. The effect is a localization and contraction of libido, the reduction of erotic to sexual experience and satisfaction.”

— Herbert Marcuse, book One-Dimensional Man

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 73

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Herbert Marcuse105

German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist 1898–1979

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