The Freudian Revolution

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Like Marx, a determinist

• People determined by their instincts– Life instinct: sex (libido)– Death instinct: aggression, self-destruction

Freud: the Psyche

• Id: the raw instincts

• Ego: the manager of the id that sublimates the instincts

• Superego: the “conscience” that manages the ego according to social standards and morality

Sublimation vs. Repression

• Sublimation=positive redirection/ modification of instincts

• Repression: When an instinct is not sublimated but frustrated. The instinct does not go away but takes the form of a neurotic symptom

Civilization and its Discontents (1930)

• Causes of suffering – Body– External world– Relations with others

Freud: methods to avoid suffering:

• Voluntary isolation

• Human community

• Intoxication

• Displacements of libido (sublimation)

• Delusion: alternative reality

• Mass delusion=religion

Freud: Why does civilization bring discontent?

• Civilization is the result of human’s sublimating their instincts

• However, civilization demands too much: civilization can repress people and make them neurotic

• Civilization 1) makes people discontented; 2) is fighting a losing battle against aggression

Freud & the arts

• Liberate the unconscious mind—an escape from “civilization”

• Stream of consciousness (literature)– Proust, Joyce, Faulkner

• Surrealism (literature & visual arts)– Kafka– Miro, Klee, Dali, Kahlo, Magritte

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

• Collective unconscious– Not personal, but shared by human beings in ge

neral– Encoded as archetypes: basic images, plot patte

rns, or character types reflecting the deep psychological needs of human beings, found in folklore, religious texts, & literature

• E.g., the child god, the hero, the wise old man (See Fiero 846)