XPost: alt.psychology, alt.psychology.jung, alt.psychology.psychoanalysis
XPost: sci.psychology.theory, sci.psychology.misc
From: mlwi@swipnet.se
The difficulty that Freud wrestled with was how to biologically
motivate an innate tendency that goes against life. Eros sustains life
while Thanatos is antagonistic to Eros. Yet, Thanatos is not
antagonistic to life from an overarching perspective. The point is
that both Eros and Thanatos work to sustain life. It functions like a
thermostat. When it gets too hot, electricity is shut off temporarily.
Seth is a menace. He is the god of the dead region, the desert. But he
defends the sun bark in the dead of night. In modern biology, such
dialectics has been verified. All living beings undergo programmed
cell death without which they could not develop to maturity.
Destructive agents in the form of free radicals (oxidants) cause
damage to living cells. So people eat antioxidants to remove these
destructive compounds. However, over-consumption of antioxidants,
especially with elderly people, is destructive to the body, causing
inflammation and accelerated aging.
The reason is that free radicals are needed in the immune system.
White blood cells are responsible for the defense against virus,
bacteria, toxins, and cancer. They utilize free radicals as
"missiles", shooting them at the infectants, thus to destroy them.
This means that a shortage of free radicals in the body weakens the
defense. The white blood cells must have recourse to plenty of free
radicals in order to fulfill their function properly[11]. So, while
free radicals do harm to living cells, they are also necessary to
promote the life of the organism. Too much free radicals and too
little of it are equally harmful. The absence of Thanatos can have
harmful consequences to life.
Regression to infantilism in sectarian groups is an expression of
Eros. Grown-up men thus give up their willpower. They are a chocking
sight. Eventually, the leader tells them to kill themselves, an order
which they readily fulfil, deprived as they are of individual
willpower. The cult leader cuts the Mother's phallus off vicariously,
because he is contemptuous of the mother-dependent male, which is
really the painful truth about himself. Death has made the scene in
the paradisal kindergarten. According to the bible, death came into
existence when mankind was banished from the Garden, which signifies
the lost unconscious symbiosis with creation. This theme is repeated
in world mythology, as in the Australian aborigine story named "The
Southern Cross", in which death enters creation when men become aware
of sin. These myths seem to say that Thanatos is concomitant with ego
consciousness, as shadow accompanies light.
Spiritual sages of all time have been misogynistic, in a sense, and
warned against cohabitation with women, as the proselytes will tend to
fall prey to the symbiotic unconsciousness of Eros. The Gnostics,
especially, whose spiritual path revolved around enlightenment,
'gnosis' (heightened consciousness), were adamant about this. The
majority subscribed to continence and a reclusive or monastic
lifestyle. But there were Gnostics who went in the opposite direction
and allowed free rein to sexuality. They also performed sexual rituals
in open before the congregation[12]. Eros is thus torn apart, through
unnatural application of sexuality. The Gnostics were aware of this.
By emptying the erotic drive, so they thought, they got rid of its
coercive power. Thence they may give God undivided attention.
At Egypt's Tahrir square, again, a Western female journalist was
(June, 2012) sexually assaulted by a large group of men. She was
"violently attacked by a 'group of animals' who stripped her naked,
scratched and clenched her breasts and 'forced their fingers inside
her'"[13]. Eros is restrained, alternatively women are raped, or
recruited to group sex, etc. It is an expression of Thanatos and a
serious impediment to Eros. In this way weak ego-consciousness defends
against abatement in the symbiotic condition, a power set in motion by
mass-movements such as the Arab Spring. It is very characteristic of
certain ethnic groups in convergence with the modern world, on account
of a low conscious level. The Holocaust and the many ethnic cleansings
give us ample evidence of how unitive Eros is compensated by divisive
Thanatos.
Mats Winther
"M Winther" skrev i meddelandet
news:4fe8b3ab$0$4275$c83e3ef6@weathergirl-read.tele2.net...
> "Thanatos"
>
> Abstract: The principle of the death drive (Thanatos) is understood
> as a genuine psychic force connected with the mother complex.
> Destructivity in repetitious form temporarily emancipates the ego
> from unconscious dependency in the psychology of phallic-narcissism.
> It is also present in the immature or fragile personality (the weak
> ego). Thanatos is unconsciously therapeutic in that it aims at
> strengthening a weak ego consciousness, thus to ward off unconscious
> wholeness, invariably associated with the Mother archetype. Although
> it serves to avoid regression, destructiveness can become obsessive.
> The sun-god Horus's perennial struggle against Seth, in Egyptian
> mythology, illustrates the dynamics of Thanatos. Accordingly, every
> night Seth defends the sun-bark by defeating the negative Mother in
> the guise of the chaos monster Apophis. Thanks to Seth, the sun of
> consciousness is restored and can rise again in the morning. In
> history, phallocentric culture is sustained by Thanatos in its
> restorative capacity, but this runs counter to the ideals of
> patriarchal culture, whose guiding star is Horus.
>
> Keywords: Todestrieb, trauma, suicide, mortido, destrudo,
> patriarchal, matriarchal.
>
> Read the article here:
> http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-73784/thanatos.htm
>
> Mats Winther
>
>
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
