Just finished!
Freud's 'dualistic and dialectic faceoff' between The 'Life' and 'Death' Instinct does have some functional value -- just not in the manner that Freud proposed.
As a theory of 'aggression', Freud's 'Death Instinct' -- to put it bluntly -- stinks.
It takes us nowhere. It is like Breuer's theory of 'hypnoid states'. They are both 'Dead End Theories'.
What does it tell us if we say Person A is more 'aggressive' than Person B because Person A has a 'stronger death instinct' than Person B. That tells us nothing. It is a dead end theory, a circular theory, where we use a totally abstract. ambigous theory (the death instinct) to purportedly explain (aggression) when, in fact, it has actually explained -- nothing at all. Why do people die? Ah, because of the 'death insinct' in man....Okay, what does that mean? Explain!
Well, maybe we can explain -- in better words than Freud -- largely because I have a 90 year plus evolutionary and scientific-medical advantage over Freud.
Let's start with 'the life instinct' before we move over to 'the death instinct'.
It is very easy to entangle 'instincts', 'principles', and 'ego functions' together in a manner that does not easily translate into clearly distinguishable 'classification systems'.
For example, Freud often used the term 'pleasure-unpleasure principle' (or just 'pleasure principle' for short). He also distinguished between the 'pleasure ego' and the 'reality ego'. And finally, he talked about 'the sexual instinct' -- and its 'component instincts'...for example, heterosexuality and homosexuality, exhibitionism and voyeurism, and sadism and masochism....Freud claimed that the young child was an active 'polymorphous pervert'...
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Polymorphous perversity is a psychoanalytic term for human ability to gain sexual gratification outside socially normative sexual behaviors. Sigmund Freud used this term to describe the normal sexual disposition of humans from infancy to about age five.
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So how do we distinguish between 'principles' and 'instincts' and 'ego-functions'....or are they all entangled together? More particularly, for example, where does 'the reality principle' or 'the reality ego' come from if it is not first an 'instinct'? It would have to come from the 'survival instinct' just as the 'pleasure principle' or 'pleasure ego' would have to come from the 'pleasure-avoidance of pain instinct' and that would lead us to the conclusion that all 'principles' and 'ego functions' come from 'instincts' first...before they are 'elevated' into the conscious personality from the unconscious or subconscious....
And furthermore, it would seem logical to conclude that the 'pleasure-avoidance of pain' principle can be subsumed under the 'survival instinct' which in turn can be subsumed under the 'life instinct' although, most definitely, man can be plagued by the fact that the 'pleasure-avoidance of pain instinct-principle-ego-function' can be 'pathologically led astray' down the 'death insinct' path to a place of 'self-destruction'...But more on that later...
As far as the life instinct goes, we can also distinguish between the 'oral instincts' (the ingestion and incorporation of life-enhancing and/or pleasure enhancing substances and/or qualities) and the 'anal instincts' which lead a 'defensive army' against all perceived 'toxic invaders'....
This is not too much different than the distinction between the 'red blood cells' (the mind and body builders) and the 'white blood cells' (the mind and body's system of self-defenders).
'Oral instincts and oral ego functions' are meant to bring into the body the raw ingredients of 'new life' whereas 'anal instincts and anal ego functions are meant to defend the mind-body from toxic, foreign invaders...
The phallic and/or genital functions are designed to 'reduce hormonal and sexual stimulation through the release of bodily tension' -- leading to what might be called 'orgasmic self-regulation' (I told you this was 'PG') as more concretely opposed to what the Gestaltists more abstractly call 'Organismic Self-Regulation' -- which includes problem-solving, conflict-resolving -- and, in the process, 'stress relief'. Proceeding from a point of 'problem or need/wish stimulation' to a point of 'creative solution and/or resolution' and then again back to a point of 'creative indifference' (see the philosophy of Sigmund Friedlander) before a 'new' problem, need, or wish surfaces -- this is the cycle of 'Organismic Self-Regulation'.
These are all signs of the individual and the 'mind-body system' working in co-ordination and co-operation with each other towards a common end -- in the words of the Gestaltists -- 'finishing' or 'closing' an 'unfinished or 'open' gestalt. And diminishing 'the load of the stress bin' in the process.
This includes the relief of physical and psychological stress and tension through 'problem-solving', 'conflict-resolution' -- and of course, on the sexual or phallic-genital level -- 'sexual gratification'....
The mark of a healthy, well-functioning, person is 'good problem-solving skills, good conflict-resolving skills, and good 'tension relief skills'. A rise and fall in our 'stress bucket level' during the course of the day as our stress bucket is filled up and emptied out....Problems in...solutions out...Conflicts in...resolutions out....Stress in...stress out...
There are many possible indicators of 'psychopathology' and/or 'neurosis' or more serious forms of 'mental illness'....But basically, they all come down to 'basic ineffectiveness' in problem-solving and conflict-resolving...that could be 'blocked' by some form of 'neurotic impasse' or 'neurotic solution' to a problem and/or conflict that is coming from either inside or outside the human organism -- or both at the same time.
Physical and psychological nutrients coming in, and toxic invaders either being destroyed or evicted outside of the mind-body system -- this is the basic bipolar functioning of the human mind-body system...to a point of 'homeostatic-dialectic-balance' or 'equillibrium' or 'creative indifference'.
Energy in...energy out...the hallmark of the healthy person is 'keeping a regulatory balance between energy in and energy out', maximizing circulatory, transportation, and communication channels in the mind-body system for maximum efficiency of problem-solving, conflict-resolving, and stress relief thoughts, choices, and actions...
This brings us to the 'death instinct'...
There are numerous 'red flags' that can indicate the beginning of 'the death instinct' taking over our lives -- 'oxidation' and 'inefficient toxin removal' that may be leaving 'brown spots' or 'liver spots' on our skin...eating food that is 'junk food' with no nutritional value, filled with preservatives, chemicals, hormones, steroids, dyes, trans-fatty acids....you've heard this all before...probably a hundred or a thousand times before...as 'the nutritional health industry' gains more power over 'the pleasure principle' in the food industry...The pleasure principle can feed the death instinct in man as well as the life and survival instinct....
Inertia, entropy, and lethargy -- these are all big 'red flags' relative to 'the death instinct' starting to take over our lives....More food and energy being consumed than 'produced' and/or 'worked off' -- these are two more red flag indicators. Carbohydrates are meant to be 'quick forms of energy' for 'quick release'....But when the carbs do not get utilized in the process of 'energy production', then they are converted to 'fat cells' and eventually lead to the greater and greater inefficiency of our mind-body....We reduce these carbohydrate calories and/or convert them and utilize them as 'energy worked off' -- and we are back on the right path to restoring a better -- and more efficient -- mind-body system....
One of the signs of 'the life instinct' at work -- as long as it is not overdone -- is the 'Apollonian' mind, i.e, the 'organized mind' that can efficiently organize problems and conflicts and stresses and wishes and needs....and values...and beliefs....and turn them into a 'finished product'...one after another....in priority sequence....until the 'stress bin has been emptied' -- or put aside for the next day's work....
In contrast, one of the signs of the 'death instinct' at work is entropy, lethargy, inertia, chaos setting in....as we see in some of those 'hoarder shows'.... 'the disorganized hoarder'....as distinguishable from the 'organized collector'...who can find exactly what he or she is looking for in a neatly classified, orderly system....
Now even 'organized collectors' can have psychological problems -- problems with 'letting go' of an 'anal-phobia' (which underneath may have an 'oral phobia') whereas the disorganzied hoarder is more 'anally explosive or addictive', typically defies authority figures, doesn't like to be told what to do, doesn't like taking advice or orders, doesn't like following rules, and in the end, doesn't like being 'neat'....He or she is metaphorically 'shitting on the Establishment'...whereas the 'anal-phobic personality' is more likely an 'Establishment Star'....
We live an 'umbrella' or 'rainbow' type life, being born into chaos and disorganization as newborn babies, quickly and/or slowly learning to 'better and better control our mind and body functions', having tons of energy as children (barring any serious health problems), working the energy off in 'play', running our parents around in circles as we become more active toddlers, working and playing our way through our school years, engaging or not engaging in sports activities, reaching a point in our life of 'peak efficiency' in some corporate or non-corporate context, and then slowly, as we move into later life, depending on how well we have taken care of our mind and body over the course of our life, starting to lose our 'peak efficiency' as 'oxidationg' and 'aging' sets in, the death instinct at work, senior citizenship setting in, and at some point, health hazards, acute and/or chronic diseases starting to kick in, and the eventual return to a more and more 'energy-challenged, energy-compromised, disorganized state of body and mind....and finally death...
Kind of morbid, eh. I don't want to depress you all. I met a lady the other day driving my wheel-chair van who was a hundred and two years old. She got to ride free. She looked blind but she travelled by herself, no companion or seeing eye dog. She was very alert and energetic -- told me that her son was 90 years old and that she had delivered him at 12 years old. I shook my head in amazement. The reality principle -- and the death instinct -- defied!
I will leave you on that note.
-- dgb, June 7th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
