Chico Xavier's mediumistic work, notably the texts by André Luiz and Emmanuel, was strongly influenced by psychoanalytic thought, hegemonic throughout much of the 20th century.

When the DSM - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, in its third edition (1980), did not validate the Freudian concepts about neurosis, due to a lack of scientific basis, the work of André Luiz and Emmanuel was practically completed.

One of the concepts examined by André Luiz is that of the sexual impulse, or creative impulse. According to the author, spiritual individuality has a special force in its intimate structure, invested with powerful creative faculties – the creative impulse. Moved by this force, the human collective slowly advances towards the supreme target of divine love. Desire, possession, sympathy, affection, creativity, devotion, renunciation, and sacrifice constitute aspects of this sublimating journey, in which the soul gradually learns to use the creative impulse for nobler achievements.1

He wrote:

[...] The natural energy of sex, inherent to life itself, generates magnetic charges in all beings, due to the creative function it has, charges that are characterized by clear potentials of attraction in the psychic system of each one and which, accumulating, invade all the sensitive fields of the soul, as if obliterating its other mechanisms of action, as if we were in front of a factory demanding adequate control.2

And also, in the same work:

[...] the sexual instinct is not only an agent of reproduction among superior forms, but, above all, it is the reconstitute of spiritual forces, through which incarnated or discarnate creatures feed each other, in the exchange of psychic-magnetic rays that are necessary for progress.

In just one instance, André uses the expression sexual energy. Examining sacrificial marriages, he says that this may happen because, commonly, it is necessary to redeem this or that debt that we contract with sexual energy, applied in an unfortunate way in light of the principles of cause and effect.3

Emmanuel frequently used the expression sexual energy, giving it the same meaning as creative impulse or sexual impulse. In the book “Vida e Sexo,” Emmanuel explains what he thinks about it:

Sexual energy, as a resource of the law of attraction, in the perpetuity of the Universe, is inherent to life itself, generating magnetic charges in all beings, in the face of the creative potentialities that it possesses [...]

As individuality evolves, however, it comes to understand that sexual energy involves the imposition of discernment and responsibility in its application, and that, for this very reason, it must be controlled by moral values that guarantee dignified employment of said energy [...]

[...] in no case will we be allowed to underestimate the importance of sexual energy which, in essence, flows from Divine Creation to the constitution and support of all creatures.

Acting in this way, out of love, donating the body to the service of others, and, in this way, supporting the brothers and sisters of Humanity, through various ways, they convert existence, without sexual connections, into a path of access to sublimation, setting themselves in different climates of creativity, because the sexual energy in them has not stopped its own flow; this energy is simply channeled towards other objectives – those of a spiritual nature.4

According to André Luiz, Freud identified this impulse in the libido – erotic energy.5

According to Freud, people are motivated primarily by impulses of which they have little or no awareness. Freud used the German word Trieb to refer to this impulse or stimulus within the person. This term was translated as instinct, impulse, or drive. Drives operate as a constant motivational force. The various impulses can be grouped under two headings: sex, or Eros, and aggression, destruction, or Thanatos. Freud used the word libido for the sexual drive.

The ultimate goal of sexual drive (reduction of sexual tension) cannot be changed, but the path by which the purpose is achieved can vary. Because this pathway is flexible and because sexual pleasure comes from organs other than the genitals, many behaviors originally motivated by Eros are difficult to recognize as sexual behavior.

For Freud, all pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual impulse. Most people are able to direct a portion of their libido in the service of higher cultural values, while at the same time retaining a sufficient amount of sexual drive to pursue individual erotic pleasure.6

Neuroscience has understood human sexuality in a very different way, as it has failed to identify this sexual impulse as something that exists and flows naturally in human intimacy. They consider that the human sexual response constitutes a set of physiological changes that occur after a positive sexual stimulus. In other words, the sexual impulse is generated only as a consequence of specific activations, and not as something that exists naturally. These stimuli can result from chemical signaling (particularly in animals), sensory (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory), or resulting from mental constructions, fantasies, or memories of previous experiences, acting primarily on the hypothalamus.

The neurophysiological bases of sexual desire have not been completely delineated, but it is known that: 1) it depends on the activity of a specific anatomical structure of the brain; 2) contains centers that increase the impulse in balance with centers that inhibit it; 3) it is served by two specific neurotransmitters – an inhibitor and an accelerant; 4) it has extensive connections with other parts of the brain, which allows the sexual impulse to be influenced and integrated into the individual's total life experience.7

It is relevant to comment that in Kardec nothing that comes close to the concept of sexual impulse proposed by Freud and reproduced by André Luiz can be found. On the contrary, Kardec established that sexual communion depends on physical organization and, in this aspect, sexuality is an expression of corporeality, insofar as Spirits do not have sex, as sexes depend on organization.8

Kardec clearly defined that Spirits do not have sex, as sex only exists in the organism; Spirits, not reproducing among themselves, then sexes would be useless in the spiritual world.9

When he came across reports of discarnate Spirits fixated on hedonistic pleasures, Kardec related them to those who feel hunger, thirst, sleep, and fatigue. He wrote: In inferior Spirits (their perispirit) it approaches matter, and this is what determines the persistence of the illusions of earthly life in low category entities, who think and act as if they were still in physical life, having the same desires and almost we could say the same sensuality.10

Examining the suffering arising from inferior passions, Kardec will say that although passions do not exist materially, they still persist in the thoughts of inferior Spirits.11

Referring to the impossibility of sexual intercourse between them, he comments that this type of passion causes torment in the depraved spirit who sees the orgies in which he cannot participate.12

It is also interesting to note that Joanna de Ângelis, in a 2007 book, adopts the ideas of neuroscience, when commenting that the sexual phenomenon takes place in the diencephalon (seat of the hypothalamus), where the varied states of excitement are expressed. In this region, neurotransmitters specific to sexual function produce the urges of desire and promote the organic reactions essential to the desired physiological communion. The author adds that the Divinity established a specific area in the brain, so that reproduction could happen through automatisms, which evolution qualified for the better with the conscious cooperation of the feeling of affection. (13)

In conclusion, it seems to us that the concept of sexual drive, as we have traditionally admitted, must be reviewed, as it does not find support in scientific Psychology, nor in Kardec's texts. Instead of an energy that arises from the intimacy of the Spirit, needing to be “drained”, the sexual impulse should be understood as a sexual tension, generated in groups of neurons, as a consequence of positive sexual stimuli. This tension motivates the individual to search for a partner to achieve sexual communion. Once the tension is relieved, by the consummation of the sexual act, or by changing the focus of interest, the impulse disappears.