The 'mind's defense system' and the 'body's defense system' work essentially the same way -- and for that matter, so does our 'computer's defense system'. And for that matter, so does our 'legal-civil defense system', and our 'military defense system'.
All of them can be said to use 'vaults' or 'prisons' to 'lock up the bad guys' -- or the 'viruses' and 'bacteria' -- or the 'dangerous thoughts, impulses, drives, obsessions, fantasies, and/or potential actions'....
In our 'psychic immune system', we all have ' superego and ego-defenders' who are like 'soldiers' or 'prison guards' who watch to make sure the 'prisoners don't escape' from 'The Shadow-Id Vault' -- the 'vault comprised of locked-up, misbehaving thoughts, impulses, drives, obsessions, fantasies, and/or potential actions'.
Now, introduce an 'existential or immediacy stressor' -- say, a loss of job, loss of income, loss of spouse, insufficient income to meet all our bills, and/or a huge bill unexpectedly landing on our desk -- say a lawyer's bill, a vet's bill, a dentist's bill, a doctor's bill, a tax bill... -- without the funds to take care of it...
Immediacy stressors can lead to 'upsets' or 'imbalances' in the mind-body's immune system, spawned by loss of hope, loss of spirit, loss of optimism, 'deflation of the ego'....Sometimes -- oftentimes -- this type of stess can spawn 'compensatory impulses' of either an angry, vengeful... and/or the sensual, pleasure-seeking variety...Indeed, often 'hard internal and/or external stressors' can trigger the onset of a whole host of possible 'addictions' -- food, sex, alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc...These are what I call 'oral obsessions' or 'oral addictions' -- they all involve the act of 'consuming' or 'receiving' pleasure -- or, at least, this is their intent.
So you wander down to your favorite 'watering hole' -- knock down a couple of 'quick cocktails', your 'ego defenders/prison guards' start to get a little 'tipsey' on the job while they are supposed to be 'working' -- and 'the inmates of your asylum, your Shadow-Id Vault' start to get a little excited that the guards 'are losing control of themselves and the 'door to the vault' -- and this is when you start to get 'The SIEVE Effect' -- Shadow-Id-Ego-Vault-Energy starting to 'escape' the vault and head upwards in the psyche, up towards the control system of 'The Central Ego'...Now, if your 'prsison guards' start to get really drunk, you could get a complete 'evacuation' of The Shadow-Id Vault -- and a 'flooding upwards' of the 'free inmates from your asylum', until you get, in effect, what might be metaphorically viewed as a 'Storming of The Bastille'...at which point you become a much more 'unpredictable patron of your local watering hole'...your behavior reflecting perhaps, more and more of the 'contents' of your 'Shadow-Id Vault and/or Ego', or worded otherwise, your 'Narcissistic-Dionysian Ego' as opposed to your 'Apollonian Ego' which used to be much more in control before you sucked down three cocktails...
If 'food' is your 'compensatory impulse of choice', then you are likely going to put on weight unless you exercise a lot, have a fast metabolism, and/or 'throw it back up again'...
If 'drug addiction' is your compensatory impulse of choice, then it will depend on whether you prefer the 'social and/or sexual type' or the 'anti-social, anal-schizoid, oral fantasy' type...The first type are usually done in couples or groups and/or parties; the latter type is more often done in metaphorical 'bat caves' where you disappear for 6 or 12 or 24 hours at a time before 're-surfacing again'..Alcohol can also serve this type of 'loner' addiction...
'Gambling' of course is likely only going to make your money problem worse...Then there are the people with lots of money -- who don't have a problem with money -- until gambling creates a money problem where there was none before...
This analysis is rather short, sharp, and pointed as well as all 'metaphorical' but I think the message is still important. The mind and body function similarly -- and dialectically -- not detached, different, and apart....
Enough said on this subject for now...This can be viewed, more or less, as an extension or extrapolation of 'Classic Freudian Theory'...
-- dgb, Jan. 8th, 2012...
-- David Gordon Bain
