Performing Against Annihilation by Lukas Schepp;

Author:Lukas Schepp;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811915000
Publisher: Springer Nature

Throughout the history of philosophy, thinkers from the Stoics to Schopenhauer have addressed instincts that influence human behavior far beyond the level of rationality. In the twentieth century, the concept of the unconscious then gained some renewed traction with the advent of psychoanalysis. For this dissertation, we will focus on two of this discipline's most prominent scholars, Siegmund Freud and Carl Jung, who have respectively formulated extensive yet decidedly different theories on the nature of the phenomenon in question.

Let us begin with Freud, who distinguishes between the ego, the id, and the superego. For him, the ego represents the fully conscious part of the human psyche, whereas the id and the superego are (in the latter case, partially) unconscious. The id is the source of animalistic drives and basic instincts, all of which can be traced back to the pleasure principle and the death drive (cf. Chapter 1 42–45). Meanwhile, the superego constitutes the sum of acquired cultural and familial codes, rules, and interdictions the respective individuals have internalized throughout their lifetimes (Ego 22–37). Now, it seems intuitive that the id is unconscious; yet, the superego requires some additional explication in this regard: while individuals might be conscious of some of the moral codes that influence their behavior, they are likely simultaneously unaware of other norms, rules, and parental behavior patterns they have unquestioningly integrated into their personalities e.g. during childhood. Thus, the superego and the id influence a given character's ego that acts as a mediating force between the two of them. Meanwhile, external influences from the environment serve as additional stimuli. Freud explains this as follows:[The ego] has the task of self-preservation. As regards external events, [the ego] performs that task by becoming aware of the stimuli from without, by storing up experiences of them (in the memory), by avoiding excessive stimuli (through flight), by dealing with moderate stimuli (through adaptation) and, finally, by learning to bring about appropriate modifications in the external world to its own advantage (through activity). As regards internal events, in relation to the id, it performs that task by gaining control over the demands of the instincts, by deciding whether they shall be allowed to obtain satisfaction, by postponing that satisfaction to times and circumstances favorable in the external world or by suppressing their excitations entirely. […] [A]n action by the ego is as it should be if it satisfies simultaneously the demands of the id, of the super-ego and of reality, that is to say if it is able to reconcile their demands with one another. (Outline 2–4)

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