Definição e significado de Lust

  Detail: Luxuria (Lust), in The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, by Hieronymus Bosch.

Lust is an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body. The lust can take any form such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food. Lust is a powerful psychic force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion.^[1]

  Etymology

Look up lust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In Old English (and several related Germanic languages), "lust" referred generally to desire, appetite, or pleasure. The sense of "to have a strong sexual desire (for or after)" is first seen in biblical use in the 1520s.^[2]

Today, the meaning of the word still has differing meanings as shown in the Merriam-Webster definition. Lust: 1. a: pleasure, delight b: personal inclination: wish 2. intense or unbridled sexual desire: lasciviousness 3. a: intense longing: craving <a lust to succeed> b: enthusiasm, eagerness <admired his lust for life>. See ^[3]

  In religion

  Buddhism

  Christianity

  Lust in the New Testament

In many translations of the New Testament, the word "lust" translates the Greek word 'ἐπιθυμέω' in Matthew 5:27–28:

You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully (ἐπιθυμέω) has already committed adultery with her in his heart.. (Gospel of Matthew 5:27–28, King James Version)

Ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη· Οὐ μοιχεύσεις. ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτὴν ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ. (Gospel of Matthew 5:27–28, SBL Greek New Testament)

In English-speaking countries, the term "lust" is often associated with sexual desire, probably because of this verse. But just as the English word was originally a general term for desire, the Greek word ἐπιθυμέω was also a general term for desire. The LSJ lexicon suggests "set one's heart upon a thing, long for, covet, desire" as glosses for ἐπιθυμέω, which is used in verses that clearly have nothing to do with sexual desire. In the Septuagint, ἐπιθυμέω is the word used in the commandment to not covet:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet your neighbor’s house or his field or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his draft animal or any animal of his or whatever belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:27, New English Translation of the Septuagint)

οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον σου οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ πλησίον σου οὔτε τὸν ἀγρὸν αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ οὔτε τὴν παιδίσκην αὐτοῦ οὔτε τοῦ βοὸς αὐτοῦ οὔτε τοῦ ὑποζυγίου αὐτοῦ οὔτε παντὸς κτήνους αὐτοῦ οὔτε ὅσα τῷ πλησίον σού ἐστιν (Exodus 20:27, Septuagint)

Matthew 5:27-28 may be a reference to Exodus 20:17, as a reminder that sin does not begin with adultery, but already when a man covets his neighbor's wife.

While coveting your neighbor's wife may involve sexual desire, it's unlikely that coveting a neighbor's house or field is sexual in nature. And in most New Testament uses, the word ἐπιθυμέω does not have a clear sexual connotation, e.g.

1. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:17, ESV)
2. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:15, ESV)
3. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. (Acts 20:33, ESV)
4. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. (Luke 15:16, ESV)

All of these verses involve strong desire or longing, but not sexual desire.

  Catholicism

  A demon satiating his lust in a 13th century manuscript.

  Romanesque capital representing the lust

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a Christian's heart is lustful when "venereal satisfaction is sought for either outside wedlock or, at any rate, in a manner which is contrary to the laws that govern marital intercourse". Pope John Paul II states that lust is totally different from the natural desire for sexual love of man and woman.^[4]

Lust is considered by Catholicism to be a disordered desire for sexual pleasure, where sexual pleasure is "sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes".^[5] In Catholicism, sexual desire in itself is good, and is considered part of God's plan for humanity. However, when sexual desire is separated from God's love, it becomes disordered and self seeking. This is seen as lust.

In Roman Catholicism, lust became one of the Seven deadly sins, taking the place of extravagance (Latin: luxuria).^{[citation needed]} This change occurred because in the Romance languages, the cognates of luxuria (the Latin name of the sin) evolved to have an exclusively sexual meaning;^{[citation needed]} the Old French cognate was adopted into English as luxury, but this lost its sexual meaning by the 14th century.^{[citation needed]}

In the Romanesque art, lust is often represented by a siren or a naked woman with breast bitten by snakes.

  Hinduism

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna, an Avatar of Vishnu declared in verse 21, that lust is one of the gates to Naraka or hell. "Arjuna said: O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? Then Krishna said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world. As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust. Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him. Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin—(lust) by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization. The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence. Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust." (Bhagavad-Gita, 3.36–43) In this ancient manuscript the idea behind the word 'Lust' is best comprehended as the psychological force called 'Wanting'.

  Islam

In Islam, intentional lascivious glances are forbidden. Lascivious thoughts are disliked, for they are the first step towards adultery, rape and other antisocial behaviors. Prophet Muhammad also stressed the magnitude of the "second glance", as the first glance towards an attractive member of the opposite sex could be just accidental or observatory, the second glance could be that gate into lustful thinking. Islam does not advocate celibacy but it requires marriage to conduct sex legally. So in conclusion Islam prohibits the actions that may lead to forbidden sexual acts, especially lustful gazing, to decrease the probability of "sinful" behavior.

  Judaism

In Judaism, all evil inclinations and lusts of the flesh are characterized by yetzer hara (Hebrew, יצר הרע). Yetzer hara is not a demonic force; rather, it is man's misuse of the things which the physical body needs to survive, and is often contrasted with yetzer hatov. This idea was derived from Genesis 8:21, which states that "the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth"^{[citation needed]}.

Yetzer hara is often identified with Satan and the angel of death,^[6] and there is sometimes a tendency to give a personality and separate activity to the Yetzer. For the Yetzer, like Satan, misleads man in this world, and testifies against him in the world to come.^{[citation needed]} Yetzer is, however, clearly distinguished from Satan, and on other occasions is made exactly parallel to sin. The Torah is considered the great antidote against this force. Though, like all things which God has made, the Yetzer is good: for without it, man would never marry, beget a child, build a house, or trade.

  Paganism

Few ancient, pagan religions have actually considered lust to be a vice.^{[citation needed]} The most famous example of a widespread religious movement practicing lechery as a ritual would be the Bacchanalias of the Ancient Roman Bacchantes. However, this activity was soon outlawed by the Roman Senate in 186 BC in the decree Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus. The practice of sacred prostitution, however, continued to be an activity practiced often by the Dionysians.

  Sikhism

In Sikhism, lust is counted among the five cardinal sins or sinful propensities (the others being anger, ego, greed and attachment). In common usage, the term stands for wanting to have sex and it is in this sense that it is considered an evil if uncontrolled in Sikhism.

  Brahma Kumaris

According to Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual organisation which is based on Hindu philosophy, sex lust is the greatest enemy to mankind^[7] and the gateway to hell.^[8] Followers do not eat onions, garlic and eggs as the sulphur in them can excite sex-lust in the body which is bound to celibacy in the Brahma Kumari doctrine. Physical sex is impure and leads to body-consciousness and many crimes. It poisons the body and leads to many diseases. The Brahma Kumaris teach is it like foraging about in a sewer. Students at the Spiritual University must conquer lust in order to go to Golden Age heaven on earth where children are created by power of mind for 2,500 years of peace and purity (like holy swan).^[9][10]

  In art

  Goya's Mujeres riendo (Women Laughing).

  Literature

From Ovid to the works of les poètes maudits, characters have always been faced with scenes of lechery, and long since has lust been a common motif in world literature. Many writers, such as Georges Bataille, Casanova and Prosper Mérimée, have written works wherein scenes at bordellos and other unseemly locales take place.

Despite the apparent evils of Baudelaire, author of Les fleurs du mal, he had once remarked, in regard to the artist, that "The more a man cultivates the arts, the less randy he becomes... Only the brute is good at coupling, and copulation is the lyricism of the masses. To copulate is to enter into another—and the artist never emerges from himself".

The most notable work to touch upon the sin of lust, and all of the Seven Deadly Sins, is Dante's la Divina Commedia. Dante's criterion for lust was an "excessive love of others," insofar as an excessive love for man would render one's love of God secondary.

In the first canticle of Dante's Inferno, the lustful are punished by being continuously swept around in a whirlwind, which symbolizes their passions. The damned who are guilty of lust, like the two famous lovers, Paolo and Francesca, receive what they desired in their mortal lives, their passions never give them rest for all eternity. In Purgatorio, of the selfsame work, the penitents choose to walk through flames in order to purge themselves of their lustful inclinations.

  In philosophy

The link between love and lust has always been a problematic question in philosophy.

Schopenhauer notes the misery which results from sexual relationships. According to him, this directly explains the sentiments of shame and sadness which tend to follow the act of sexual intercourse. For, he states, the only power that reigns is the inextinguishable desire to face, at any price, the blind love present in human existence without any consideration of the outcome. He estimates that a genius of his species is an industrial being who wants only to produce, and wants only to think. The theme of lust for Schopenhauer is thus to consider the horrors which will almost certainly follow the culmination of lust.

  In New Age teachings

In many religious doctrines lust is loosely defined with the result that it is often equated and confused with the physical expression of love in the sexual act. Barry Long states that lusting is only the thinking about sex, and this thinking about the natural sexual energy gives rise to a separate powerful emotional condition known as lust. This emotional condition is the problem in love. A quote from Barry Long on the subject of celibacy (with regard to being free of sexual force) clarifies his definition of love:

"You don’t need a celibate body, you need a celibate mind"^[11]

A celibate mind is a mind free of lust. He states that the natural attraction between the sexes is pure and holy. The physical act of sex in the absence of wanting and trying, thinking and fantasizing(lust), results in the creation of a state of love in the bodies. The error in love is to think about sex.^[12][13][14]

  In psychoanalysis and psychology

Lust, in the domain of psychoanalysis and psychology, is often treated as a case of "heightened libido". A person is more likely to lust over someone who does not resemble oneself. Self-relatedness is a cue of kinship and causes an instinctual reaction to not be attracted. Therefore, self-resemblance decreases attractiveness and sexual desire in a person while less resemblance increases attractiveness and sexual desire creating a higher possibility of lust.^[15]

  See also

• Concupiscence
• Kam
• Kama
• Libido
• Love
• Masturbation
• Matthew 5:27–28
• Seven Deadly Sins

  • Lust
  • Envy
  • Gluttony
  • Greed
  • Pride
  • Sloth
  • Wrath

• Sexual attraction

  Further reading

• Froböse, Gabriele, Rolf Froböse, and Michael Gross (translator). Lust and Love: Is it more than Chemistry? Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006. ISBN 0-85404-867-7.

  References

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  External links

Look up lust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust" National Public Radio feature
• "A New Look at Lust: The Secular View"
• The Catholic Encyclopedia: Lust
• Catechism of the Catholic Church: The Sixth Commandment
• The Jewish Encyclopedia: Yeẓer ha-Ra

Emotions (list) Emotions Adoration Affection Agony Awe Amusement Anger Anguish Annoyance Anxiety Arousal Attraction Caring Compassion Contempt Contentment Defeat Dejection Depression Desire Despair Disappointment Disgust Ecstasy Embarrassment Empathy Enthrallment Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Excitement Fear Frustration Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Homesickness Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hysteria Infatuation Insecurity Insult Interest Irritation Isolation Jealousy Loneliness Longing Love Lust Melancholy Neglect Optimism Panic Passion Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Rejection Remorse Resentment Sadness Sentimentality Shame Shock Sorrow Spite Suffering Surprise Sympathy Tenseness Thrill Revenge Wonder Worry Diligence Zest Worldviews Compatibilism Existentialism Fatalism Incompatibilism Metaphysics Nihilism Optimism Pessimism Reclusion Social justice Weltschmerz Source: Parrott, W. (2001), Emotions in Social Psychology, Psychology Press, Philadelphia.