My dad has been both an 'idealistic visionary' and a 'down-to-earth go-getter' all his life -- in both business and in politics, and now, when he gets a chance, as both and he and my mom battle both health and money issues, in romantic 21st century Canadian poetry. My dad's part of the family background is Scottish, I believe going back to 'Aberdeen, Scotland' -- 'Bain' is our family name from my dad's side -- and one of my favorite periods of Western history is 'The Scottish Enlightenment'. The Scottish Enlightenment produced a great proportion of innovative, inventive, creative, brilliant thinkers -- and it could all be tied back to a decision some politician and/or set of politicians made in Scotland to 'upgrade the education level' in Scotland by offering either free or very cheap education -- even advanced, University education -- to all the people in Scotland. No 'class' and/or 'economic' distinctions, preferentialisms, and/or discriminations...Over the space of a generation or two, Scotland jumped to the forefront of the Industrial Revolution from a time of famine, poverty, and starvation on their Scottish farms...I have two books in my library here on The Scottish Revolution and Enlightenment period, and this is the general gist of what I have read from these two books so far. At some point in my writing, I would like to probe deeper into the essence of this time period in Scottish history.
My mom's family background is German -- 'Connard' -- and my mom's idealistic vision, and her day to day activities, have always reflected a propensity for an emphasis on stability and nurturing in the marriage, the family, and the community. Neither my mom or my dad have ever been 'pushy' about their religious beliefs but both share a strong Protestant, religious faith. And it shows in their combined efforts towards helping to build both stable families and communities, stable family and community values.
There is a part of my dad's idealistic vision that includes a significant part of 'The German Spirit, Mentality, and Lifestyle' -- he strongly values punctuality, order, and organization -- the hallmarks of what Freud would call 'the anal-retentive personality'. However, this is only one polarity in my dad's personality because there has always been a strong element of 'spontaneity' and 'impulsiveness' in our Bain family as well which has been both good and bad. The good part is that spontaneity and impulsiveness help to break people away from the bleakness and blandness of an 'overly regimented' and/or 'routine' life; the bad part is that 'schedules get broken' and/or 'start to run late', and/or 'details' get missed in schedules and/or in communication transactions that can lead to communication breakdowns -- all of which often made the 'anal-retentive-Apollonian' side of my dad's personality often go 'ballistic' as he strove to live up to a standard of Apollonian perfection that neither he nor any part of our family could ever fully achieve...Indeed, my dad's life, in my eyes, ran very much like what I would project to be the life of an imaginary protagonist in Nietzsche's first little book, 'The Birth of Tragedy' -- as my dad strove often unsuccessfully to 'integrate' the Apollonian and Dionysian elements in his personality into a type of 'internal monism' where often there was a 'raging dualism' that could never be 'properly and/or fully tamed'. My dad seemed to have a hard time fully accepting the 'very active Dionysian side' of his personality....and continually seemed to either try to deny its existence (this side of existence) and/or push this part of his personality back into 'The Shadows' -- The 'Dionysian Shadows' ...a type of scenario that is very much reflected in Nietzsche's amazing little book, 'The Birth of Tragedy', so very 'Hegelian' in its structure, presentation, and idealistic vision (so much so that Nietzsche would come to 'disown' what I think was one of his strongest creations). The Birth of Tragedy, would in essence, like Hegel's masterpiece before it, 'The Phenomenology of Spirit', foreshadow the birth of Psychoanalysis and Freud's famous internal triad: 'The Id', 'The Superego', and 'The Ego' reflecting both Hegel's famous triad of: thesis, anti-thesis, and synthesis, as well as Nietzsche's follow up to Hegel's masterpiece with his own idealistic vision of 'finding a working balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of our personality. Unfortunately -- at least from a 'psychological health' point of view -- Nietzsche would over time, eventually and essentially abandon his own internal 'Apollo' and become a more or less strictly 'Dionysian' philosopher. Nietzsche would still go on to write many brilliant philosophical works and pieces -- but the essential idea of 'balance in the personality between our Apollonian and Dionysian post-Hegelian bi-polarities' was essentially gone after Nietzsche, himself, started to disown what in my opinion was a brilliant first piece of work -- the often overlooked 'post-Hegelian wonder piece that served as a bridge between philosophy and clinical psychology -- between Hegel, Schopenhauer, Freud and Jung.
I see 'The Birth of Tragedy' reflected and projected in my dad's life -- and concurrently -- very much in my own life -- and in my 'creative projection' here -- 'Hegel's Hotel'.
The trick is -- and always will be -- finding that point of 'optimal homeostatic-multi-dialectic, multi-bi-polar, balance, not only between Apollo and Dionysus but also between numerous other potentially tragic and/or healthy, mythological or non-mythological bi-polarities such as: Humanistic-Existential (compassion vs. accountability), Gaia (Goddess of Earth or Land)-Hera (Goddess of Marriage)-and Aphrodite (Goddess of Romance, Beauty, Fertility) balance'
Balance -- whatever it is you/we are trying either rationally and/or emotionally and/or desperately to balance -- is generally very, very fleeting -- kind of like eating or breathing or sex -- our 'satiation point' is always fleeting and cyclical, no matter how good we are at going out and getting what we want, our 'satiation point' is always only temporary before we have to go out and aim to get what we want all over again, and what we 'want' can either be healthy or pathological depending on what it is exactly that we are constantly chasing...
Usually, we either have to become better at getting whatever it is we are chasing, and/or we need to stop chasing that which is destructive and/or self-destructive....Two different forms of the same overall dialectical, multi-bi-polar, homeostatic balance, psychotherapy...at least this idealized version of DGB Philosophy-Psychology-and Philo-Psychotherapy...
Enough for this morning,
-- dgb, Nov. 7th, 2009
-- David Gordon Bain
