Freud: Symptom Formation, the Realm of Fixation and the Cure

For Sigmund Freud heredity, childhood, adult experience and fantasy are all connected in the realm of fixation. The realm of fixation is that of the neurotic and either symptom formation or perversion.
Freud says that everyone is born with a sexual constitution- the amount of libido endowed upon them form their parents-this is the hereditary background upon which sexual drive in life is based. In short our sexual constitution is the amount of libido we are born with. This amount cannot be changed throughout our lifetime. It can however, get tied up along the way and become lost in the unconscious.
The sexual constitution can be looked at as the level of ability to counteract neurotic tendencies (Freud, p. 422). Therefore, sexual constitution plays a key role in the development or prevention of developing a neurotic symptom. Sexual constitution is only one of two factors affecting libido- the other being childhood experience.
Libido- sexual energy- endowed upon us at birth ...