I am in the process of starting to build an integrative psychoanalytic blogsite...You can find it evolving as we speak at this URL listed below....
http://hegelshoteldgbpsychoanalysis.blogspot.com/
The more civil we become, the more rules and laws that are made, the more politically correct we become, the more life becomes 'staged' -- as opposed to 'real'.
We lose the spontaneity, the creativity, the risk, the courage, of the 'real encounter'.
Our life, and our love, gets locked and lost behind a steel armour-plate, or wthin an iron vault -- the one we wear into the office every day to 'present our professional self', and/or the one we build more and more for every love relationship that has gone bad on us.
We protect ourselves from identifying who we really are, and give away no hidden vulnerablities, but in the process we lose the 'I and Thou, Here and Now' of a real encounter, a real relationship...one where we wear our heart on our sleeve -- and say, in effect, 'Hey world, for better and/or for worse, this is me.'
As young people, we experience real encounters and real love, when we truly let ourselves go in the presence of someone we deeply care about.
But then we learn about the inherent risks of letting ourselves go so completely....how it can come back to almost destroy us in a powerful, intimate relationship gone bad.
There has to be a balance in mutual self-disclosure, or one person does indeed become more vulnerable than the other. Nobody wants to be 'played'. Nobody wants to be the victim of someone else's manipulations unless perhaps both are playing by the same rules, perhaps trying to 'out-manipulate' each other -- and know it.
There is the 'transference love' of 'over-idealizing' another person who we really don't know very well. Don't underestimate this type of love because it can be powerful even if it is 'over-inflated exuberance and infatuation'. But be wary. High, unrealistic expectations can be impossible to live up to -- like Obama's image from his campaign speeches -- optimistic, hopeful, striving for a better America...a better, more united, less racist and hateful world...
Great ideals, to be sure, but most of them buried beneath an earthquake of 'narcissistic realism'...
The man couldn't live up to the near 'flawless' image and the personna that he portrayed... How could anyone? Jesus Christ perhaps...but that is mythological idealization and idolization projected outwards....We all look for heroes and idols who can make our world a better world, make ourselves feel better about ourselves...We all partly want to -- but don't believe -- we can fully live up to 'these ideals' ourselves...
'Beware false (and/or over over-inflated, overly perfectionistic) ideals and idols...They will bury us under the same earthquake of -- let's say, 'human fallibility' -- if we take them too righteously, too seriously, too perfectionistic -- and don't allow some room for human tolerance (which is definitely not the same as saying that we should ignore all narcissistic transgressions...)
Transference love can spark 'chemistry' and lead to a deeper, more profound love.
But it can also be fleeting and 'turn' as fast as Freud turned 'The Seduction Theory' into 'The Oedipal Theory'....(As a side note, I think that Freud quickly hid 'his real clinical, therapeutic self' on May 4th, 1896 behind a 'steel iron plate' in his own subconsious and replaced it just as quickly with a still 'provocatively shocking' but much more 'Professionally and Politically Correct Personna' that the Victorian doctors liked a lot better...because it didn't point an accusing finger at perhaps their own narcissistic transgressions...) With every significant 'trauma' in our own lives, we can all generally quickly learn to do the same...
Behind, or within, transference love, there is the potential for a much deeper type of romantic and/or friendship love that comes with really learning to know someone at their most intimate levels -- without turning our back on them when we come into contact with their own perceived and/or hidden weaknesses, their compensations, their complexes and things about them that we may really have a lot of trouble dealing with. (Look in the mirror and this may be the same thing that we have the most trouble dealing with in ourselves as well -- and/or our polar opposite.)
When we can't get by these 'relationship impasses' and take the relationship to a deeper level...and intstead, we or our partner turns and walks away...for good....over time, over the years, these jaded, broken relationships take a high physical and emotional toll on our psyches...We lose the 'real us'...we lose the ability to live and love at the deepest levels... We begin to operate more and more by the principle of....'No risk...no loss'...
With each further love relationship gone bad, and/or moment of 'professional weakness and vulnerability' that comes back to haunt us, we learn -- or at least we attempt to learn -- how to compensate from our perceived past mistakes, and perhaps, in the process, get better and better at 'idealizing and mastering our own Public Personna'....
In effect, we become....
The man or woman behind the iron plate...
This is not the path to 'Self-Enlightenment'....
But rather the path to greater and greater 'Self-Protection'...
The Path to Self and Social Alienation....
Want to know how to fix this problem, and turn it around...
Pay more attention to your five or six year old son or daughter, or grandson or grandaughter....
Watch how they play and interact....
And are real....
In the end, we all balance different components of our 'Real Inner Self' with our 'Social Personna' which may reflect greater or lesser degrees of who we really are...
It's a matter of ...
Are we 'findng' more and more of our Self....
Or 'losing' more and more of our Self...
With each passing relationship that we are involved in,
With each passing encounter,
With each passing transaction....
That we make....
Or don't make....
-- dgb, June 30th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
In The Beginning....
In the beginning....
Let me suggest...
That our Creator decided....
To create a world....
That would be...
At different or the same times...
Dramatic, tragic, comical, absurd, painfuil, suspenseful, celebratory, remorseless, optimistic, pessimistic, evolutionary, de-evolutionary, honest, deceitful, transparent, manipulative, narcissistic, altruistic, loving, caring, unloving, uncaring, uniting, splitting, attractive, repulsive, competitiive, co-operative....
Full of powerplays designed to conquer....
Interwoven amongst....
Co-operative, assertive, humanistic, dialectic negotiations...
Two sides looking for mutually satisfying answers....
Or not....
Problem solutions and conflict resolutions...
Aimed at surmounting seemingly insurmountable impasses...
Demanding the best of man's creative, evolutionary integrative spirit....
Sometimes it's there...
And sometimes it's not...
Are we looking for win-lose negotiations and resolutions...
That we, and only we, win?
Or are we looking for win-win negotiations and synergies...
Thst will sustain and bind an ongoing relationship together...
In mutual respect, integrity, honesty and trust...
Regardless of what colour, what sex, what nationality, what religion, what culture, what background...we come from...
As Martin Buber would say...
Here and Now,
I and Thou....
-- dgb, June 23rd,
-- David Gordon Bain,
Let me suggest...
That our Creator decided....
To create a world....
That would be...
At different or the same times...
Dramatic, tragic, comical, absurd, painfuil, suspenseful, celebratory, remorseless, optimistic, pessimistic, evolutionary, de-evolutionary, honest, deceitful, transparent, manipulative, narcissistic, altruistic, loving, caring, unloving, uncaring, uniting, splitting, attractive, repulsive, competitiive, co-operative....
Full of powerplays designed to conquer....
Interwoven amongst....
Co-operative, assertive, humanistic, dialectic negotiations...
Two sides looking for mutually satisfying answers....
Or not....
Problem solutions and conflict resolutions...
Aimed at surmounting seemingly insurmountable impasses...
Demanding the best of man's creative, evolutionary integrative spirit....
Sometimes it's there...
And sometimes it's not...
Are we looking for win-lose negotiations and resolutions...
That we, and only we, win?
Or are we looking for win-win negotiations and synergies...
Thst will sustain and bind an ongoing relationship together...
In mutual respect, integrity, honesty and trust...
Regardless of what colour, what sex, what nationality, what religion, what culture, what background...we come from...
As Martin Buber would say...
Here and Now,
I and Thou....
-- dgb, June 23rd,
-- David Gordon Bain,
Friday, June 17, 2011
On Dialectic Complexes, Gods and Archetypes, Mythologies, The Id, The Instincts/Impulses, and Their Many Viscisitudes (Mutations, Defenses, and Compromise-Formations)...
More modifications and extensions......Finally finished!...June 25th, 2011...
Sorry, my friends...coming off another 72 hour work week, this essay has become a little 'disjointed'....Today, being my only day off this week, I am going to try to finish up this essay in some kind of organized, coherent fashion....dgb, Sat. June 25th, 2011
.................................................................................................
Let's get a better understanding of how dialectic philosophy can be applied to the study of psychology and biology -- and their parallelism -- at the deepest levels.
What do we mean by a 'Complex'?
A 'complex', as it shall be defined here, is two or more variables, processes, factors, components...that come together into one or more 'molecular structure(s) and/or process(es)' (on the biological level), and/or on the metaphorical equalivalent psychological and/or philosophical level.
On a 'building' level, we are likely to call one 'structure' that is built out of wood, concrete, bricks, or whatever (for a functional purpose -- like being 'lived' in, or 'worked' in) -- a 'building'; whereas more than one connected building (with similar interconnecting functions), we are more likely to call a 'complex'.... such as an 'apartment complex'.
Now, dialectically speaking, whenever there has been an integration between two 'competing' or 'opposing' ideas, we have what we will call a 'dialectic complex'.
For example,
Let 'T' stand for 'Thesis';
Let 'A' stand for 'Anti-thesis';
Let 'S' stand for 'Synthesis'...which implies a 'uniting' of thesis and anti-thesis...
To form a 'TAS (Thesis-Anti-thesis-Synthesis) -- or Dialectic -- Complex'.
In this regard, I have asked the question previously,
How might 'the id' have been defined differently if Freud had created it before 1897 rather than in 1923?
James Strachey writes in his editor's introduction to 'The Ego and The Id'...
The term 'das Es', (the German word for what became labelled in English as 'the Id', see below), (1) as Freud himself explains below (p.23), was derived in the first instance from George Groddeck, a physician practising at Baden-Baden, who had recently become attached to psycho-analysis and with whose wide-ranging ideas Freud felt much sympathy. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...
Previous to Groddeck, the term 'das Es' is reported by Strachey as having been used by Ernest Schweninger (Groddeck's teacher), and before that by Nietzsche.
Writes Strachey again,
(1) There was to begin with a good deal of discussion over the choice of an English equivalent. 'The id' was eventually decided upon in preference to 'the it' (my emphasis), so as to be parallel with the long-established 'ego'. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...(Now what Strachey meant here by 'parallel' is totally ambiguous -- we will address this issue later in terms of the folloing question:
Does the id deserve to have a co-related 'ego-state' attached to its 'instinctual function' -- such as 'The Dionysian Ego'. My answer to this question is in the affirmative and thus I distinguish -- in Nietzschean style -- between 'The (more primitive, archaic, uncivil) Dionysian Ego' and 'The (more civil, ethical, righteous) Apollonian Ego'.
However, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here. The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted to change or modify or extend Freud's definition(s) of the id to mean something other than what Freud meant by it. Here, i have finally come up with the answer 'no' -- I want to keep the original Freudian, instinctual meaning of the id and simply surround it by other concepts that Freud neglected, suppressed, didn't see the need for -- or whatever such as 'The Shadow' and 'The Personna' which are very useful Jungian concepts, and such as the concept of 'Traumactic-Transference Childhood Experiences and/or Memories' (TTCEMs), and such as the concept of 'Narcissistic Childhood Infatuations-Obsessions-Fantasies' (NCIOFs), and such as 'The ID Vault' and/or 'The SID (Shadow-Id) Vault'.
These new and/or 'opposing school' concepts allow us to do a host of different things that Freud 'boxed himself' or 'vaulted himself' out of...because he became 'fixated' on 'Instinct-Drive-Fantasy' Theory. Thus, for example, in the 1905 'Dora' case, Freud 'boxed himself' into a particular way of 'psycho-analyzing' the case that he would not have viewed in the same paradigm had he 'analyzed' Dora around 1894-95 when he was using his 'Traumacy Theory'. A 'good Classical Psychoanalyst' should be able to dialectically move back and forth in flexible fashion between 'traumacy' theory and 'fantasy' theory without beimg 'dominated' by either one or the other theory except as the clinical evidence 'best tells us' which way to move...Was Dora 'repressing her sexual instincts' relative to 'two old men' (her father, and her father's friend), or was she 'caught in the middle' between two old men trying to manipulate and exploit her -- one who 'sexually wanted' her (her father's friend) and the other -- her father -- who seemed to want to 'trade her off' in exchange for 'his friend's wife'...i.e., 'You can have my daughter if I can have your wife.'... Which seems like the better interpretation to you -- all else being equal -- and not being privy to all the specific details that Freud was privy to? Was this case really as 'sexually bizarre' (in terms of Dora's own wishes) as Freud was trying to make us believe? Or was Freud simply 'boxed in' by the 'biological and instinctual reductionism' of his own 'instinctual fantasy' theory? I opt for the latter explanation.
Let us turn to the 'ego' for a few minutes before we come back to the id...
'The ego' goes at least as far back in German philosophy as Fichte to mean 'the whole Self', whereas Freud, depending on the context, vascillated between using 'the ego' as an equivalent to 'the whole Self' -- like Fichte -- vs. using it to mean a more specific part of the 'whole Self or Psyche' that has particular reality-based, safety, mediating, conflict-resolving, and decision-making functions, as differentiated in Freud's 1923 model from 'the id' and from 'the superego' -- the 'three different psychic agencies that Freud viewed as making up the combined whole of the psyche or Self'.
................................................................................................
Strachey goes on to write...
It (the id) cleared up and in part replaced the ill-defined uses of the earlier terms 'the unconscious', 'the Ucs', and 'the systematic unconscious'. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...
.....................................................
Freud may have cleared up some 'old confusions' relative to his ambiguous and/or 'sliding' use of 'the unconscious' before 1923 but 'equating' the id with 'the unconscious' (as Freud was partly prone to do even after he wrote 'The Ego and The Id' in 1923) would create some new ambiguities and confusions as well as solve some old ones.
Obviously, the 'id' was being separated and distinguished from the 'ego' and yet this in itself created problems because elsewhere Freud would write that 'the id' was the 'oldest, most primitive and uncivil part of the ego' -- indeed, the 'ego' was 'born' from 'the id'....as it evolved and became more 'civil', 'less primitive', more concerned with 'ethical' and 'safety' matters even as it was still, at the same time, trying its best to 'satisfy the impulses and/or instincts of the id'...or at least work out 'compromise-formations' that partly satisfied the desires of the id....
Also, Freud's 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle', written three years earlier than 'The Ego and The Id' in 1920, was creating some new complications as well...In 1920, Freud, in writing probably his most abstract, 'metaphysical' essay, had distinguished between man's two most basic 'instincts' -- 'the life instinct', and 'the death instinct' -- which, now in 1923, were being 'deposited' within the 'container' or 'confines' of 'the id'.
However, the id was not simply a 'reservoir' or a 'container' -- Freud gave the id a 'personality', which mythologically speaking, was seemingly a 'trialectic' integration between 'Dionysus' (for simplicity sake, let's call 'Dionysus' the God of 'pleasure'), 'Narcissus' (The God of 'self-absorption') and 'Satan' (the God of 'evil').
The id, which according to Freud, was located in the deepest region of the unconscious (only to be unlocked and understood properly by Psychoanalysis) , was not 'organized' in its makeup at all but was rather 'chaotic' and 'disorganized', 'contradictory', 'no ethics', wanted 'immdediate gratification', and was constantly 'driving the ego crazy' with its 'demands from down below for instant gratification'...(while, at the same time, 'the superego' was generally harping and nagging at the ego from the 'upper, righteous' side of the personality -- metaphorically, visually, and/or geographically speaking.
Now I have no problem working with this Classic Freudian model as described above -- except for some of the reductionistic elements of it, and also, with the particular integration that Freud made between man's 'aggressive impulses and behaviors' and Freud's controversial understanding of 'the death instinct'....But these problems, we will delve deeper into in another essay...
Let's go with the Classical Freudian model that we have....and hopefully 'metaphorically enrich' it....
I have already 'gone beyond' Freud -- and here I am starting to integrate some Jungian ideas into my 'post-Freudian DGB model' -- when I said that the 'Id' can be described as a 'trialectic integration' between three ancient Gods: Dionysus, Narcissus, and Satan. Now -- as my creative mind starts to 'rev up its juices', let's introduce a fourth: 'Thor'.
............................................................................................
From Wikipedia...
In Norse mythology, Thor (from Old Norse Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of mankind.
.....................................................................
Well, from the little description above, we can depict 'Thor' as a 'bipolar God' -- capable of 'destruction' as well as 'fertility', 'healing', and 'the protection of mankind'.
Is 'the Id' capable of 'great destruction'. Yes.
Is 'the Id' capable of 'fertility', 'healing', and 'the protection of mankind'. Well, at least partly yes....'No fertility'...and 'no mankind'...Nietzsche has certainly trumpeted the virtues of Dionysus....even while overlooking 'Dionysian Self-Destructive Dangers'....that coincidentally or non-coincidentally...Nietzsche himself fell into during the last ten years of his life... Nietzsche fell into a 'Great Big Black Dionysian Hole' which I have also equated elsewhere with the concept of 'The Nietzschean Abyss'...
So what do we have in mind here by the concept of 'The Id' which Freud may or may not have accepted. Probably he wouldn't have because the concept -- the way I envision it -- reaches into Jungian Theory and pulls some ideas back into Freudian Theory.
The Id -- as I conceive it here in DGB Quantum-Dialectic Integrative (QDI) Psychoanalysis -- in its most primitive, uncivil, unadulterated form, is basically an 'Archetype' that exists in 'The Shadows/Unconscious/Subconscious' of The Personality or Psyche. Now an 'Archetype' as I am defining it here is an 'introjection' of an archaic mythological symbol and/or God -- or in this case here - a 'conflation' (multi-dialectic integration) of four different mythological Gods -- Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor.
What I like most about adding 'Thor' into the mix is the idea of Thor (like Zeus) being able to 'send out highly charged lightningbolts of creative and/or destructive energy'....
So 'The Id' in this context here becomes an Archetype or 'Internalized/Introjected Conflation of Four Ancient Gods -- Dionysus, Narcsissus, Satan, and Thor -- 'shooting lightning bolts of highly charged energy from deep in The Shadows of The Personality up into The Conscious Personality -- for 'The Ego', or what we will call here, 'The Central Ego' -- to deal with in whatever way it -- as in 'The Central Ego' of our 'Self' -- deem most appropriate under the particular context of the situation...
Now if we equate The Ego -- or as conceptualized here, 'The Central Ego' -- with 'The Archetype' of 'Zeus', then we have a potential 'battle' in the making -- a 'battle of The Gods' -- between 'Zeus' and 'Apollo' on the 'upper side' of the personality (which can be equated with 'the white blood cells' and/or 'immune system' and/or 'the army' of the personality or to use a different analogy altogether, 'the electrons' of the personality) being 'sent down' either quickly or slowly to meet the 'rising surge of some particular type of dangerously perceived Id Complex'....
The two opposing, dialectic -- or bipolar -- forces in the personality ('protons' vs. 'electrons', 'red blood cells' vs. 'white blood cells') are charging towards each other like The Greek and Persian Armies....meeting at some point either in 'the conscious' or 'subconscious' mind...
If the 'id complex' is stronger than the opposing 'ego defense force', then 'the id complex' can 'overwhelm' The Central Ego...and in effect...'take control of the personality'....
If the 'ego defense force' is stronger than the uprising of the id complex, then what the ego defense force will essentially do -- at least metaphorically -- is either 'destroy' and/or 'surround' and 'contain' the rising id force....very much like the 'white blood cells' of the body would either destroy, eject, and/or surround and contain any 'perceived foreign invader' caught within the confines of the body...
It is relative to this idea of 'immune system containment' or 'ego defense containment' that I derive the concept of 'The Id Vault'.
'The ID' itself -- which can be used partly as an acronym for 'Impulsive Desire', 'Intense Drive', 'Inner Demand'... -- can be viewed as a primitive, uncivil, hedonistic, narcissistic, sometimes nasty...'ego-state of the subconscious' where 'driving forces of life and death energy are shot up into the conscious personality to somehow be handled (or not handled) by the accepting or rejecting forces of 'The Central Ego' in conjunction with the more or less righeous, stringent forces of 'The Apollonian Superego'....
Now in contrast, 'The ID Vault' is a 'place of ego defense' where the 'white blood cell' forces of the ego have 'surrounded' and 'contained' the upwards rising 'red blood cell' energy of some type of 'ID Complex'....and 'institutionalized' this ID Complex if you will -- brought it under the 'organized and harnessed control of the ego'....If the 'ego defenders' 'fall asleep on the job' or 'get drunk and incapcitated'....then the ID Vault becomes undefended...and 'The Id Complex' slips out of The Id Vault....enters and/or becomes 'alive and strong' in the conscious personality....and can wreak havoc or even 'take control' of The Central Ego...In this regard, our 'Alter-Ego' is likely to 'come alive' in our personality...
Now for some 'biblical' mythology, metaphors, and interpretations...
The Id can be equated to the combined forces of Dionysus-Narcissus-Satan-Thor....with 'Hell being the home of The Id in The Subconscious Shadows of The Personality'...
The Righteous, Apollonian Ego can be equated to an Archetype of an integrative combination of 'God or Zeus with Apollo'...and The Central Ego can be equated to The Archetype of 'Jesus Christ', the mediator and potential healer of 'alienated, estranged, ex-communicated Gods, Archetypes, and energies in the Personality... Zeus, Apollo, and God all are housed in 'idealized Heaven'...
Satan is 'the estranged, alienated, ex-communicated angel of God' -- banished from Heaven, and now abiding in 'Hell' -- and becomes a part of 'The Fearsome Foursome': Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor.
The 'fight for control of the mind and body becomes the mythological fight between God and Satan, between good and evil, with Jesus Christ -- the potentially healing mediator -- acting as 'therapist' between 'God' and 'Satan' as they strive or don't strive to become more harmonious, balanced, workable 'team members' again integrating 'the subconscious desires and fantasies' of the id (from 'Hell in the personality') with the 'idealistic, righteous ethics' of the superego (from 'Heaven in the personality').
Mythologically speaking, 'neurosis' can be defined and/or described as the 'neurotic conflict' set up by 'the alienated dissociation and estrangement' of Zeus, Apollo, and God from 'Heaven' -- at war with Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor....residing in 'The Underground Furnace of The Personality as metaphorically depicted by 'Hell' -- with the Id (containing potential components of 'Satan' as well as Dionysus, Narcissus, and Thor), constituting the driving force, the driving foursome, the driving conflation of four Gods and/or Archetypes -- from Hell...
In this manner, 'the myth' of 'God and Satan' becomes a parable of internal conflict and neurosis in the personality...
Turning to the realm of metaphorical biology, a 'neurotic conflict' and/or a 'neurotic disorder' can be likened to an 'auto-immune conflict and/or disorder'. The principle is basically the same. And the mind-body is looking for -- fighting for -- some 'workable state of homeostatic (dialectic, democratic) balance.
Let's leave this essay here. We have covered enough material for today.
-- dgb, June 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- and 'Quantum-Dialectic-Integrative Psychoanalysis'...
-- Are/Is Still in Process...
Sorry, my friends...coming off another 72 hour work week, this essay has become a little 'disjointed'....Today, being my only day off this week, I am going to try to finish up this essay in some kind of organized, coherent fashion....dgb, Sat. June 25th, 2011
.................................................................................................
Let's get a better understanding of how dialectic philosophy can be applied to the study of psychology and biology -- and their parallelism -- at the deepest levels.
What do we mean by a 'Complex'?
A 'complex', as it shall be defined here, is two or more variables, processes, factors, components...that come together into one or more 'molecular structure(s) and/or process(es)' (on the biological level), and/or on the metaphorical equalivalent psychological and/or philosophical level.
On a 'building' level, we are likely to call one 'structure' that is built out of wood, concrete, bricks, or whatever (for a functional purpose -- like being 'lived' in, or 'worked' in) -- a 'building'; whereas more than one connected building (with similar interconnecting functions), we are more likely to call a 'complex'.... such as an 'apartment complex'.
Now, dialectically speaking, whenever there has been an integration between two 'competing' or 'opposing' ideas, we have what we will call a 'dialectic complex'.
For example,
Let 'T' stand for 'Thesis';
Let 'A' stand for 'Anti-thesis';
Let 'S' stand for 'Synthesis'...which implies a 'uniting' of thesis and anti-thesis...
To form a 'TAS (Thesis-Anti-thesis-Synthesis) -- or Dialectic -- Complex'.
In this regard, I have asked the question previously,
How might 'the id' have been defined differently if Freud had created it before 1897 rather than in 1923?
James Strachey writes in his editor's introduction to 'The Ego and The Id'...
The term 'das Es', (the German word for what became labelled in English as 'the Id', see below), (1) as Freud himself explains below (p.23), was derived in the first instance from George Groddeck, a physician practising at Baden-Baden, who had recently become attached to psycho-analysis and with whose wide-ranging ideas Freud felt much sympathy. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...
Previous to Groddeck, the term 'das Es' is reported by Strachey as having been used by Ernest Schweninger (Groddeck's teacher), and before that by Nietzsche.
Writes Strachey again,
(1) There was to begin with a good deal of discussion over the choice of an English equivalent. 'The id' was eventually decided upon in preference to 'the it' (my emphasis), so as to be parallel with the long-established 'ego'. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...(Now what Strachey meant here by 'parallel' is totally ambiguous -- we will address this issue later in terms of the folloing question:
Does the id deserve to have a co-related 'ego-state' attached to its 'instinctual function' -- such as 'The Dionysian Ego'. My answer to this question is in the affirmative and thus I distinguish -- in Nietzschean style -- between 'The (more primitive, archaic, uncivil) Dionysian Ego' and 'The (more civil, ethical, righteous) Apollonian Ego'.
However, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here. The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted to change or modify or extend Freud's definition(s) of the id to mean something other than what Freud meant by it. Here, i have finally come up with the answer 'no' -- I want to keep the original Freudian, instinctual meaning of the id and simply surround it by other concepts that Freud neglected, suppressed, didn't see the need for -- or whatever such as 'The Shadow' and 'The Personna' which are very useful Jungian concepts, and such as the concept of 'Traumactic-Transference Childhood Experiences and/or Memories' (TTCEMs), and such as the concept of 'Narcissistic Childhood Infatuations-Obsessions-Fantasies' (NCIOFs), and such as 'The ID Vault' and/or 'The SID (Shadow-Id) Vault'.
These new and/or 'opposing school' concepts allow us to do a host of different things that Freud 'boxed himself' or 'vaulted himself' out of...because he became 'fixated' on 'Instinct-Drive-Fantasy' Theory. Thus, for example, in the 1905 'Dora' case, Freud 'boxed himself' into a particular way of 'psycho-analyzing' the case that he would not have viewed in the same paradigm had he 'analyzed' Dora around 1894-95 when he was using his 'Traumacy Theory'. A 'good Classical Psychoanalyst' should be able to dialectically move back and forth in flexible fashion between 'traumacy' theory and 'fantasy' theory without beimg 'dominated' by either one or the other theory except as the clinical evidence 'best tells us' which way to move...Was Dora 'repressing her sexual instincts' relative to 'two old men' (her father, and her father's friend), or was she 'caught in the middle' between two old men trying to manipulate and exploit her -- one who 'sexually wanted' her (her father's friend) and the other -- her father -- who seemed to want to 'trade her off' in exchange for 'his friend's wife'...i.e., 'You can have my daughter if I can have your wife.'... Which seems like the better interpretation to you -- all else being equal -- and not being privy to all the specific details that Freud was privy to? Was this case really as 'sexually bizarre' (in terms of Dora's own wishes) as Freud was trying to make us believe? Or was Freud simply 'boxed in' by the 'biological and instinctual reductionism' of his own 'instinctual fantasy' theory? I opt for the latter explanation.
Let us turn to the 'ego' for a few minutes before we come back to the id...
'The ego' goes at least as far back in German philosophy as Fichte to mean 'the whole Self', whereas Freud, depending on the context, vascillated between using 'the ego' as an equivalent to 'the whole Self' -- like Fichte -- vs. using it to mean a more specific part of the 'whole Self or Psyche' that has particular reality-based, safety, mediating, conflict-resolving, and decision-making functions, as differentiated in Freud's 1923 model from 'the id' and from 'the superego' -- the 'three different psychic agencies that Freud viewed as making up the combined whole of the psyche or Self'.
................................................................................................
Strachey goes on to write...
It (the id) cleared up and in part replaced the ill-defined uses of the earlier terms 'the unconscious', 'the Ucs', and 'the systematic unconscious'. (1923, SE, V. X1X, p. 7)...
.....................................................
Freud may have cleared up some 'old confusions' relative to his ambiguous and/or 'sliding' use of 'the unconscious' before 1923 but 'equating' the id with 'the unconscious' (as Freud was partly prone to do even after he wrote 'The Ego and The Id' in 1923) would create some new ambiguities and confusions as well as solve some old ones.
Obviously, the 'id' was being separated and distinguished from the 'ego' and yet this in itself created problems because elsewhere Freud would write that 'the id' was the 'oldest, most primitive and uncivil part of the ego' -- indeed, the 'ego' was 'born' from 'the id'....as it evolved and became more 'civil', 'less primitive', more concerned with 'ethical' and 'safety' matters even as it was still, at the same time, trying its best to 'satisfy the impulses and/or instincts of the id'...or at least work out 'compromise-formations' that partly satisfied the desires of the id....
Also, Freud's 'Beyond The Pleasure Principle', written three years earlier than 'The Ego and The Id' in 1920, was creating some new complications as well...In 1920, Freud, in writing probably his most abstract, 'metaphysical' essay, had distinguished between man's two most basic 'instincts' -- 'the life instinct', and 'the death instinct' -- which, now in 1923, were being 'deposited' within the 'container' or 'confines' of 'the id'.
However, the id was not simply a 'reservoir' or a 'container' -- Freud gave the id a 'personality', which mythologically speaking, was seemingly a 'trialectic' integration between 'Dionysus' (for simplicity sake, let's call 'Dionysus' the God of 'pleasure'), 'Narcissus' (The God of 'self-absorption') and 'Satan' (the God of 'evil').
The id, which according to Freud, was located in the deepest region of the unconscious (only to be unlocked and understood properly by Psychoanalysis) , was not 'organized' in its makeup at all but was rather 'chaotic' and 'disorganized', 'contradictory', 'no ethics', wanted 'immdediate gratification', and was constantly 'driving the ego crazy' with its 'demands from down below for instant gratification'...(while, at the same time, 'the superego' was generally harping and nagging at the ego from the 'upper, righteous' side of the personality -- metaphorically, visually, and/or geographically speaking.
Now I have no problem working with this Classic Freudian model as described above -- except for some of the reductionistic elements of it, and also, with the particular integration that Freud made between man's 'aggressive impulses and behaviors' and Freud's controversial understanding of 'the death instinct'....But these problems, we will delve deeper into in another essay...
Let's go with the Classical Freudian model that we have....and hopefully 'metaphorically enrich' it....
I have already 'gone beyond' Freud -- and here I am starting to integrate some Jungian ideas into my 'post-Freudian DGB model' -- when I said that the 'Id' can be described as a 'trialectic integration' between three ancient Gods: Dionysus, Narcissus, and Satan. Now -- as my creative mind starts to 'rev up its juices', let's introduce a fourth: 'Thor'.
............................................................................................
From Wikipedia...
In Norse mythology, Thor (from Old Norse Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of mankind.
.....................................................................
Well, from the little description above, we can depict 'Thor' as a 'bipolar God' -- capable of 'destruction' as well as 'fertility', 'healing', and 'the protection of mankind'.
Is 'the Id' capable of 'great destruction'. Yes.
Is 'the Id' capable of 'fertility', 'healing', and 'the protection of mankind'. Well, at least partly yes....'No fertility'...and 'no mankind'...Nietzsche has certainly trumpeted the virtues of Dionysus....even while overlooking 'Dionysian Self-Destructive Dangers'....that coincidentally or non-coincidentally...Nietzsche himself fell into during the last ten years of his life... Nietzsche fell into a 'Great Big Black Dionysian Hole' which I have also equated elsewhere with the concept of 'The Nietzschean Abyss'...
So what do we have in mind here by the concept of 'The Id' which Freud may or may not have accepted. Probably he wouldn't have because the concept -- the way I envision it -- reaches into Jungian Theory and pulls some ideas back into Freudian Theory.
The Id -- as I conceive it here in DGB Quantum-Dialectic Integrative (QDI) Psychoanalysis -- in its most primitive, uncivil, unadulterated form, is basically an 'Archetype' that exists in 'The Shadows/Unconscious/Subconscious' of The Personality or Psyche. Now an 'Archetype' as I am defining it here is an 'introjection' of an archaic mythological symbol and/or God -- or in this case here - a 'conflation' (multi-dialectic integration) of four different mythological Gods -- Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor.
What I like most about adding 'Thor' into the mix is the idea of Thor (like Zeus) being able to 'send out highly charged lightningbolts of creative and/or destructive energy'....
So 'The Id' in this context here becomes an Archetype or 'Internalized/Introjected Conflation of Four Ancient Gods -- Dionysus, Narcsissus, Satan, and Thor -- 'shooting lightning bolts of highly charged energy from deep in The Shadows of The Personality up into The Conscious Personality -- for 'The Ego', or what we will call here, 'The Central Ego' -- to deal with in whatever way it -- as in 'The Central Ego' of our 'Self' -- deem most appropriate under the particular context of the situation...
Now if we equate The Ego -- or as conceptualized here, 'The Central Ego' -- with 'The Archetype' of 'Zeus', then we have a potential 'battle' in the making -- a 'battle of The Gods' -- between 'Zeus' and 'Apollo' on the 'upper side' of the personality (which can be equated with 'the white blood cells' and/or 'immune system' and/or 'the army' of the personality or to use a different analogy altogether, 'the electrons' of the personality) being 'sent down' either quickly or slowly to meet the 'rising surge of some particular type of dangerously perceived Id Complex'....
The two opposing, dialectic -- or bipolar -- forces in the personality ('protons' vs. 'electrons', 'red blood cells' vs. 'white blood cells') are charging towards each other like The Greek and Persian Armies....meeting at some point either in 'the conscious' or 'subconscious' mind...
If the 'id complex' is stronger than the opposing 'ego defense force', then 'the id complex' can 'overwhelm' The Central Ego...and in effect...'take control of the personality'....
If the 'ego defense force' is stronger than the uprising of the id complex, then what the ego defense force will essentially do -- at least metaphorically -- is either 'destroy' and/or 'surround' and 'contain' the rising id force....very much like the 'white blood cells' of the body would either destroy, eject, and/or surround and contain any 'perceived foreign invader' caught within the confines of the body...
It is relative to this idea of 'immune system containment' or 'ego defense containment' that I derive the concept of 'The Id Vault'.
'The ID' itself -- which can be used partly as an acronym for 'Impulsive Desire', 'Intense Drive', 'Inner Demand'... -- can be viewed as a primitive, uncivil, hedonistic, narcissistic, sometimes nasty...'ego-state of the subconscious' where 'driving forces of life and death energy are shot up into the conscious personality to somehow be handled (or not handled) by the accepting or rejecting forces of 'The Central Ego' in conjunction with the more or less righeous, stringent forces of 'The Apollonian Superego'....
Now in contrast, 'The ID Vault' is a 'place of ego defense' where the 'white blood cell' forces of the ego have 'surrounded' and 'contained' the upwards rising 'red blood cell' energy of some type of 'ID Complex'....and 'institutionalized' this ID Complex if you will -- brought it under the 'organized and harnessed control of the ego'....If the 'ego defenders' 'fall asleep on the job' or 'get drunk and incapcitated'....then the ID Vault becomes undefended...and 'The Id Complex' slips out of The Id Vault....enters and/or becomes 'alive and strong' in the conscious personality....and can wreak havoc or even 'take control' of The Central Ego...In this regard, our 'Alter-Ego' is likely to 'come alive' in our personality...
Now for some 'biblical' mythology, metaphors, and interpretations...
The Id can be equated to the combined forces of Dionysus-Narcissus-Satan-Thor....with 'Hell being the home of The Id in The Subconscious Shadows of The Personality'...
The Righteous, Apollonian Ego can be equated to an Archetype of an integrative combination of 'God or Zeus with Apollo'...and The Central Ego can be equated to The Archetype of 'Jesus Christ', the mediator and potential healer of 'alienated, estranged, ex-communicated Gods, Archetypes, and energies in the Personality... Zeus, Apollo, and God all are housed in 'idealized Heaven'...
Satan is 'the estranged, alienated, ex-communicated angel of God' -- banished from Heaven, and now abiding in 'Hell' -- and becomes a part of 'The Fearsome Foursome': Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor.
The 'fight for control of the mind and body becomes the mythological fight between God and Satan, between good and evil, with Jesus Christ -- the potentially healing mediator -- acting as 'therapist' between 'God' and 'Satan' as they strive or don't strive to become more harmonious, balanced, workable 'team members' again integrating 'the subconscious desires and fantasies' of the id (from 'Hell in the personality') with the 'idealistic, righteous ethics' of the superego (from 'Heaven in the personality').
Mythologically speaking, 'neurosis' can be defined and/or described as the 'neurotic conflict' set up by 'the alienated dissociation and estrangement' of Zeus, Apollo, and God from 'Heaven' -- at war with Dionysus, Narcissus, Satan, and Thor....residing in 'The Underground Furnace of The Personality as metaphorically depicted by 'Hell' -- with the Id (containing potential components of 'Satan' as well as Dionysus, Narcissus, and Thor), constituting the driving force, the driving foursome, the driving conflation of four Gods and/or Archetypes -- from Hell...
In this manner, 'the myth' of 'God and Satan' becomes a parable of internal conflict and neurosis in the personality...
Turning to the realm of metaphorical biology, a 'neurotic conflict' and/or a 'neurotic disorder' can be likened to an 'auto-immune conflict and/or disorder'. The principle is basically the same. And the mind-body is looking for -- fighting for -- some 'workable state of homeostatic (dialectic, democratic) balance.
Let's leave this essay here. We have covered enough material for today.
-- dgb, June 25th, 2011
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- and 'Quantum-Dialectic-Integrative Psychoanalysis'...
-- Are/Is Still in Process...
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Spider-Web of 'Causality', Accountability, and Responsibility Usually Runs Deep; 'Blame' is Often Passed Down The Power Hierarchy Until a 'Scapegoat' Is Found -- A 'Manager' or a 'Front-Line' Worker Without The Ability or The Power To Properly Defend Himself/Herself: At 'The Centre of The Web' is Often One Common Denominator -- Money
Who Killed Davey Moore? -- Bob Dylan, 1964
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not I,” says the referee
“Don’t point your finger at me
I could’ve stopped it in the eighth
An’ maybe kept him from his fate
But the crowd would’ve booed, I’m sure
At not gettin’ their money’s worth
It’s too bad he had to go
But there was a pressure on me too, you know
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not us,” says the angry crowd
Whose screams filled the arena loud
“It’s too bad he died that night
But we just like to see a fight
We didn’t mean for him t’ meet his death
We just meant to see some sweat
There ain’t nothing wrong in that
It wasn’t us that made him fall
No, you can’t blame us at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says his manager
Puffing on a big cigar
“It’s hard to say, it’s hard to tell
I always thought that he was well
It’s too bad for his wife an’ kids he’s dead
But if he was sick, he should’ve said
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the gambling man
With his ticket stub still in his hand
“It wasn’t me that knocked him down
My hands never touched him none
I didn’t commit no ugly sin
Anyway, I put money on him to win
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the boxing writer
Pounding print on his old typewriter
Sayin’, “Boxing ain’t to blame
There’s just as much danger in a football game”
Sayin’, “Fistfighting is here to stay
It’s just the old American way
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the man whose fists
Laid him low in a cloud of mist
Who came here from Cuba’s door
Where boxing ain’t allowed no more
“I hit him, yes, it’s true
But that’s what I am paid to do
Don’t say ‘murder,’ don’t say ‘kill’
It was destiny, it was God’s will”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
Copyright © 1964, 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992, 1993 by Special Rider Music
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not I,” says the referee
“Don’t point your finger at me
I could’ve stopped it in the eighth
An’ maybe kept him from his fate
But the crowd would’ve booed, I’m sure
At not gettin’ their money’s worth
It’s too bad he had to go
But there was a pressure on me too, you know
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not us,” says the angry crowd
Whose screams filled the arena loud
“It’s too bad he died that night
But we just like to see a fight
We didn’t mean for him t’ meet his death
We just meant to see some sweat
There ain’t nothing wrong in that
It wasn’t us that made him fall
No, you can’t blame us at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says his manager
Puffing on a big cigar
“It’s hard to say, it’s hard to tell
I always thought that he was well
It’s too bad for his wife an’ kids he’s dead
But if he was sick, he should’ve said
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the gambling man
With his ticket stub still in his hand
“It wasn’t me that knocked him down
My hands never touched him none
I didn’t commit no ugly sin
Anyway, I put money on him to win
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the boxing writer
Pounding print on his old typewriter
Sayin’, “Boxing ain’t to blame
There’s just as much danger in a football game”
Sayin’, “Fistfighting is here to stay
It’s just the old American way
It wasn’t me that made him fall
No, you can’t blame me at all”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
“Not me,” says the man whose fists
Laid him low in a cloud of mist
Who came here from Cuba’s door
Where boxing ain’t allowed no more
“I hit him, yes, it’s true
But that’s what I am paid to do
Don’t say ‘murder,’ don’t say ‘kill’
It was destiny, it was God’s will”
Who killed Davey Moore
Why an’ what’s the reason for?
Copyright © 1964, 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1992, 1993 by Special Rider Music
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Stranger Awakens....
If you are only living your life to pay off your bills, what are you living for? Like a slave lives to please -- or at least not unplease -- his master? Hanging on with a Pit Bull grip to a job that barely keeps your head above water? I guess that you can at least say...that your head is still above water....There are too many 'Titanic-like' scenes out there....not winning the war against the water....
Where is the meaning here? Where is the passion? In simply doing anything and everything you can to survive?
Where is your creative Self? Is it being actualized in your work? Or is it being buried in your work? Where is your mind while you work? In your work? Or trying to escape your work? Are you Kafka working in an insurance company? Doestevsky who wants to bring you passionate notes from the Underground. Are you Camus who wakes up one day and feels that you have lived your whole life as The Stranger? Or feels yourself on Trial -- for living a life that you didn't live?
There are a generation of Baby Boomers who have already entered -- or are in the process of entering -- Senior Citizinship, and for this generation -- My Generation -- the Day of Reckoning has come....The Day of The Trial....
Did you accomplish what you set out to accomplish? Did you fufill a good chunk of your life goals? Are you with the man or woman you want to be with? Are your kids off to a good start in life, encouraged by the wisdom you left them? Do your grandchildren add sweetness, innocence, energy, and trial and error curiosity to your life?
Or did you get sidetracked somewhere? Down some wrong path? Sidetracked by addiction? By a man or woman at the office? Sidetracked by spending too much time at work...and not enough time at home? Somehow you were not there to guide your children through school and play, reading and writing, the sports games that you both loved and hated, but didn't share with your children? Your children idealized, and idolized you, even when you weren't the perfect father or mother....Did you let their image of you slip away, become jaded, by just not being there for them, one, two, or maybe even a hundred or a thousand, too many times? You were trying too hard to pursue other goals in your life...and perhaps looking back at it now....would have made an extra effort to have made yourself more available for their needs than you were?
Or not? We all have things we can look back at and smile about....cherish....and then the other half of the things that we missed while we were doing what we did....
Can we look back at things now and say that we captured the main essence of what we wanted? Or did we miss a significant part of the main essence of what we wanted?
I drive a wheel-chair van now, have been doing so for the last month.
This has been an eye-opening experience for me.
A heart-wrenching experience for me. Inside, I cry sometimes after hearing another story....
The young man who was paralzyed by a drunk driver...
Lots of stroke patients....Way too many stroke patients....One man whispers into my ear as I take him to the door. 'I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be...But I just can't remember anything....' I left him inside the door of an Alzeimer's Society....
Lots of dialysis patients.....A patient with a horror story that made me quiver...Diagnosed with the early signs of colon cancer, he had his colon taken out....a month or two later he had pneumononia and didn't even know it....His primary symptom that finally took him to a hospital was shortness of breath...a smoker with developing emphysema...but this was different...He collapsed in the hospital...and woke up two months later from a coma....Septic poisoning had invaded his bloodstream and when he woke up he found that his kidneys didn't work any longer....and that he would have to wear an oxygen mask...He now goes to dialysis five days a week. The coma episode was about six years ago.
The stroke victim who was just too addicted to alchohol...I see these types of men very frequently as I take them home from work to a men's shelter....They have lost their wives or girlfriends, their homes, their families, say that they are going to get help, enter a rehab program, and the next day....when I pick them up....they are stinking drunk again....Will power isn't the same as fantasy power...
The stroke victim I started to tell you about...same story...lost his wife, home, and family to alcohold addiction....contemplated suicide...prayed to God to relieve him from his insanity...and the next day he had his stroke...He never drank again...but lives in a residential home owned by nuns....takes dialysis...The good part is that he has rediscovered his wife and kids....and thanks God for that...feels in his heart that he got a better deal and a second chance at life...
Tragedy, traumacy, and in some cases, a decent resolution....
That is what I see all day....
And think about for at least a good part of the night...
Every new job...
As much as you may resent certain elements of it....
Also contains the possibility of a new Awakening...
A twinging of the heart strings...
Of The Stranger Inside...
-- dgb, June 15th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
Where is the meaning here? Where is the passion? In simply doing anything and everything you can to survive?
Where is your creative Self? Is it being actualized in your work? Or is it being buried in your work? Where is your mind while you work? In your work? Or trying to escape your work? Are you Kafka working in an insurance company? Doestevsky who wants to bring you passionate notes from the Underground. Are you Camus who wakes up one day and feels that you have lived your whole life as The Stranger? Or feels yourself on Trial -- for living a life that you didn't live?
There are a generation of Baby Boomers who have already entered -- or are in the process of entering -- Senior Citizinship, and for this generation -- My Generation -- the Day of Reckoning has come....The Day of The Trial....
Did you accomplish what you set out to accomplish? Did you fufill a good chunk of your life goals? Are you with the man or woman you want to be with? Are your kids off to a good start in life, encouraged by the wisdom you left them? Do your grandchildren add sweetness, innocence, energy, and trial and error curiosity to your life?
Or did you get sidetracked somewhere? Down some wrong path? Sidetracked by addiction? By a man or woman at the office? Sidetracked by spending too much time at work...and not enough time at home? Somehow you were not there to guide your children through school and play, reading and writing, the sports games that you both loved and hated, but didn't share with your children? Your children idealized, and idolized you, even when you weren't the perfect father or mother....Did you let their image of you slip away, become jaded, by just not being there for them, one, two, or maybe even a hundred or a thousand, too many times? You were trying too hard to pursue other goals in your life...and perhaps looking back at it now....would have made an extra effort to have made yourself more available for their needs than you were?
Or not? We all have things we can look back at and smile about....cherish....and then the other half of the things that we missed while we were doing what we did....
Can we look back at things now and say that we captured the main essence of what we wanted? Or did we miss a significant part of the main essence of what we wanted?
I drive a wheel-chair van now, have been doing so for the last month.
This has been an eye-opening experience for me.
A heart-wrenching experience for me. Inside, I cry sometimes after hearing another story....
The young man who was paralzyed by a drunk driver...
Lots of stroke patients....Way too many stroke patients....One man whispers into my ear as I take him to the door. 'I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be...But I just can't remember anything....' I left him inside the door of an Alzeimer's Society....
Lots of dialysis patients.....A patient with a horror story that made me quiver...Diagnosed with the early signs of colon cancer, he had his colon taken out....a month or two later he had pneumononia and didn't even know it....His primary symptom that finally took him to a hospital was shortness of breath...a smoker with developing emphysema...but this was different...He collapsed in the hospital...and woke up two months later from a coma....Septic poisoning had invaded his bloodstream and when he woke up he found that his kidneys didn't work any longer....and that he would have to wear an oxygen mask...He now goes to dialysis five days a week. The coma episode was about six years ago.
The stroke victim who was just too addicted to alchohol...I see these types of men very frequently as I take them home from work to a men's shelter....They have lost their wives or girlfriends, their homes, their families, say that they are going to get help, enter a rehab program, and the next day....when I pick them up....they are stinking drunk again....Will power isn't the same as fantasy power...
The stroke victim I started to tell you about...same story...lost his wife, home, and family to alcohold addiction....contemplated suicide...prayed to God to relieve him from his insanity...and the next day he had his stroke...He never drank again...but lives in a residential home owned by nuns....takes dialysis...The good part is that he has rediscovered his wife and kids....and thanks God for that...feels in his heart that he got a better deal and a second chance at life...
Tragedy, traumacy, and in some cases, a decent resolution....
That is what I see all day....
And think about for at least a good part of the night...
Every new job...
As much as you may resent certain elements of it....
Also contains the possibility of a new Awakening...
A twinging of the heart strings...
Of The Stranger Inside...
-- dgb, June 15th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
The Best Ideas Have Sex -- A Lot of Sex -- With Other Ideas!
I heard someone on the radio a few evenings ago say that, 'Good ideas have sex.'
Now I have drawn this metaphorical comparison before myself in a number of different essays.
But I don't think quite so starkly...
So I had/have to run with this idea a bit more...
We have all heard such comments as...
'That sounds like a very fertile idea, Mr. Jones....
Let's see where we can go with that...'
The idea of 'good ideas having sex'...
Sounds very Freudian...
I can just hear Freud saying....
'Well, if good ideas are having sex....
Then that is because, underneath all our...
Copulating ideas,
We all want to literally have sex...
Good sex, great sex....
And this is just one more example...
Of how man 'sublimates' his sex drive....
Much like artists and architects....
Playing with phallic symbols and vessels...
And much like the symbols....
That occur in our myths and dreams as well...
The Greek God, Zeus, and his 'Godly-Ram' status....
The Alpha-Male....Don Juan...Casanova....
Perhaps The Greatest Alpha-Male Idea....
In the history of Western Philosophy....
Was the idea most clearly articulated by Hegel....
Of ....The Dialectic...and Dialectic Interplay....
Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis...
Conceptual copulation!
-- dgb, June 15th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations
-- Are Still in Process...
Now I have drawn this metaphorical comparison before myself in a number of different essays.
But I don't think quite so starkly...
So I had/have to run with this idea a bit more...
We have all heard such comments as...
'That sounds like a very fertile idea, Mr. Jones....
Let's see where we can go with that...'
The idea of 'good ideas having sex'...
Sounds very Freudian...
I can just hear Freud saying....
'Well, if good ideas are having sex....
Then that is because, underneath all our...
Copulating ideas,
We all want to literally have sex...
Good sex, great sex....
And this is just one more example...
Of how man 'sublimates' his sex drive....
Much like artists and architects....
Playing with phallic symbols and vessels...
And much like the symbols....
That occur in our myths and dreams as well...
The Greek God, Zeus, and his 'Godly-Ram' status....
The Alpha-Male....Don Juan...Casanova....
Perhaps The Greatest Alpha-Male Idea....
In the history of Western Philosophy....
Was the idea most clearly articulated by Hegel....
Of ....The Dialectic...and Dialectic Interplay....
Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis...
Conceptual copulation!
-- dgb, June 15th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations
-- Are Still in Process...
Saturday, June 11, 2011
A Man After My Own Heart -- Or Before My Own Heart...
Dialectical Psychoanalysis:
Toward Process Psychology
JON MILLS
Mills, Jon (2000). Dialectical Psychoanalysis: Toward Process Psychology. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 23(3), 20-54.
Abstract
While claiming allegiance to empirical science, psychoanalysis can further profit from philosophical fortification. Largely unknown to psychoanalytic discourse, Hegel's process philosophy has direct applications for advancing contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Through a proper appreciation of his dialectical method, Hegel's philosophy enriches current theoretical innovations and adds to our understanding of psychic reality. Throughout this project, I will outline Hegel's logic of the dialectic and show its intimate relationship to psychoanalytic inquiry. Hegel's dialectic gains descriptive and explanatory power in articulating the dynamic activities of mind as well as tracing the historical development of psychoanalysis itself. With the adoption of process psychology, dialectical psychoanalysis may offer future advances in psychoanalytic theory, clinical investigation, and applied technique.
http://www.processpsychology.com/new-articles/Process-Psychology.htm
Toward Process Psychology
JON MILLS
Mills, Jon (2000). Dialectical Psychoanalysis: Toward Process Psychology. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 23(3), 20-54.
Abstract
While claiming allegiance to empirical science, psychoanalysis can further profit from philosophical fortification. Largely unknown to psychoanalytic discourse, Hegel's process philosophy has direct applications for advancing contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Through a proper appreciation of his dialectical method, Hegel's philosophy enriches current theoretical innovations and adds to our understanding of psychic reality. Throughout this project, I will outline Hegel's logic of the dialectic and show its intimate relationship to psychoanalytic inquiry. Hegel's dialectic gains descriptive and explanatory power in articulating the dynamic activities of mind as well as tracing the historical development of psychoanalysis itself. With the adoption of process psychology, dialectical psychoanalysis may offer future advances in psychoanalytic theory, clinical investigation, and applied technique.
http://www.processpsychology.com/new-articles/Process-Psychology.htm
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