ABSTRACT
A person needs his yetzer drive, which he may use willingly as a £ir, that is, a pivot, for infinite possibilities of yetzira, that is, spiritual creativity, for without these components he or she is not a yetzur, a human being. In differentiating between a dualistic and a monistic conception of good and evil, Porter used the yetzer as a core concept for a monistic theory of desire according to which “evil” and “good” desires are but two sides of the same entity. The yetzer-yetzira intertwined conceptualization allegedly comprises a recycling model that defines a priori sexual desire as a combined physical-imaginative energy-producing mechanism. The bottom line of Sigmund Freud’s “frustration-sublimation” theory seems to suggest, however, that the crusaders and some cultural creators “executed” their life’s calling with an aggressive style nourished by sexual frustration.
