The “wellbeing economy” concept - negatively defined as “beyond GDP”, and positively as a new set of people-and-planet friendly outcomes for business and government - is rising in importance. (For example, it’s been a shared theme of the leadership competition for the Scottish National Party in the last few months). It’s been at the core of our curations around economics for several years now

So we were delighted to find this LinkedIn column from Jesús Martín González, digging up a precursor to wellbeing economics from the deep 1970s (which often seems like a Burgess Shale of alternative fossils waiting to be reanimated.

The thinker is the Argentinian social-science polymath Carlos Mallmann. Wikipedia tells us that Mallmann’s “concept of unmet basic needs was later adopted by the United Nations as a main criterion of evaluation of human development.”

We would direct you to Jesús’s full and vibrant essay on LinkedIn - but there’s one section we couldn’t help highlighting, which is Mallman’s distinction - among many other economies - of the libido economy. Gonzalez interestingly notes that the original Spanish spelling of the concept is ‘Economía lúdica’ (from Latin ludus: to play), but has been rendered by English translators as 'Libido' (from Latin: lust, desire and from Indo-European language leubh (love)].

Mallman’s definition of the libido economy is below:

The study of the needs, values and aspirations of human beings; the time they devote to various activities; and the resulting satisfactions and frustrations.

Gonzalez continues:

We can observe 6 key elements [of the LE]

needs,
aspirations (wishes),
values,
time
activities (most of them having repercussions on Nature)
and the result (a greater or lesser degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction).

Seen 50 years later, from 2023 and with the term "polycrisis" or "metacrisis" before us…I observe a great dissatisfaction of people (their bio-psycho-socio-cultural part). This is evidenced in the increase of physical and mental illnesses, and the consequent taking of anxiolytics or immersing themselves in activities (pseudo-satisfactory) to calm that discomfort. As well as an increase of polarisations, clashes between different groups and the consequent cultural wars, etc.

This diagnosis indicates that these human needs are not being satisfied globally—or are being partially satisfied but at a great cost in terms of time used for them (e.g. bullshit jobs) by the population. These are activities that in the short and medium term are beginning to damage us as a society (local and global).

On nature's side (the biophysical), we observe how these Nine Planetary Boundaries proposed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre are being exceeded. Each year the Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) reaches us sooner.

In other words, to achieve a minimum of satisfaction we are using, as the Spanish expression says “Matar moscas a cañonazos” (Killing flies with cannons)—an enormous amount of energy, resources and time. We have to look into that “black box” of human nature where we have those two intermediate elements, aspirations and values, which lead me to these questions:

What do we aspire to? Why do we aspire to what we aspire to? What are the values that are behind our motivations and aspirations? How could we assemble those aspirations to fairly satisfy our needs without harming nature so much?

Despite not being a psychologist, sociologist or anthropologist, Mallmann tried to answer similar questions and to go towards a "Wellbeing theory" by holistically analysing the human being and society from an "internal" perspective.

Gonzalez’s article goes on to assert that the key distinction to be made when analysing the libido economy was that between “needs” and “satisfiers” - which is beautifully laid out in the graphic below. Long-term readers of the Daily Alternative will see how close Mallmann’s “needs” are to the “human givens” development framework we often use here.

We invite readers to help us out with Mallmann references - there’s not much translated into English. And we must distinguish this work from J-F Lyotard’s Libidinal Economy - which ChatGTP-4 summarises for us as:

Jean-François Lyotard's "Libidinal Economy," first published in 1974, is a complex and provocative work that combines philosophical inquiry with psychoanalytic theory to explore the underlying drives and desires of society. The book is rooted in the poststructuralist and postmodernist movements, challenging traditional modes of thought and understanding.

Central to Lyotard's argument is the notion of the "libidinal band," an enigmatic figure representing the flow of desires, energies, and intensities that circulate within social, political, and economic structures. Lyotard posits that this libidinal energy is responsible for driving human action and behavior, making it a key element in understanding the dynamics of social relations.

"Libidinal Economy" seeks to expose the interplay between libidinal drives and the rational organization of society, which Lyotard refers to as the "theatrical system." According to him, the latter tries to control and manipulate the former, resulting in an ongoing struggle between order and chaos, repression and expression, and system and energy.

Lyotard criticizes the Marxist theory of political economy, suggesting that it fails to account for the complex interrelations between desire and social organization. Instead, he proposes that we should examine the libidinal dimensions of society and uncover the hidden desires that shape and influence human behavior.

In summary, Jean-François Lyotard's "Libidinal Economy" offers a radical reinterpretation of the social and political landscape, drawing on psychoanalytic theory to reveal the role of desire in shaping the world around us. By exposing the tension between rational systems and libidinal energies, Lyotard's work challenges traditional conceptions of power and control, inviting us to consider the more fluid and dynamic aspects of human experience.

This is libido as desire, a permanent tension and dissatisfaction in society, rather than something that can be “satisfied”. Again, your thoughts are welcome…

Before our current concern with the "wellbeing economy” there was the "libido economy” in the 1970s. What did Argentinian polymath Carlos Mallmann mean by it?