2009年12月4日 星期五
2009年11月28日 星期六
The Future of an Illusion
What we find in this text is the beginning of studies which were to be Freud's main interest for the rest of his life.
Text:
I: Freud beings the text with an observation of two characteristics of civilization. [1] First, he notes that it has developed the knowledge and capacity necessary to control and extract the wealth of the world and society to the satisfaction of human needs. [2] Civilization has also acquired all the regulations that are necessary in order to adjust the relationships of people to one another. This is especially so in terms of the distribution of wealth.
What this implies is that human beings are not independent of each other. [a] The mutuality of human relationships is influenced by the amount of instinctual satisfaction which the available wealth makes possible. [b] Because individual's can function as wealth in relation to another individual in terms of [i] economics-i.e., that capacity to work, and [ii]as sexual objects. [c] Each individual is considered to be an enemy to civilization. This is so even though civilization if supposed to be an object of universal interest. Therefore civilization must defend itself against the individual, and its regulations, institutions and commands which are all formed for and directed towards this task. (6)
From this Freud concludes that every civilization must be built upon coercion and renunciation of instincts. That is, we must recognize the fact that there is present in all humans destructive, and thus anti-social and anti-cultural, trends and that this is enough to determine the behaviour of a great many persons. To Freud, then, the question becomes on of whether and to what extent is it possible to lessen the burden of instinctual sacrifices imposed on us in order to reconcile people to those restrictions on life that must remain and provide then compensation for them. He notes that just as it is impossible to do without the control of the group by a minority, it is impossible top dispense with coercion in civilization. This statement is based on Freud's opinion that groups are inherently lazy and unintelligent, etc. (see: Group Psychology S.E:18). (7)...
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2009年11月22日 星期日
FAMILY CONSTELLATION Theory and Practice of a Psychological Game
By Walter Toman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Brandeis University
This is a book for many, since most people are interested in people (in cluding themselves), and most enjoy a good game. Family Constellation is a psychological game which approximates life yet is simple enough in its ingre dients and explicit enough in its few rules to be learned quickly from this book. Before long you will think in terms of family constellations, and with their help figure out people, relation ships, conflicts and psychological puz zles. Mastery of the game can make a difference in your entire life. From a set of factual data about a person's brothers and sisters, parents, uncles and aunts, an expert in the game can predict the nature of interpersonal problems with an exactitude and specificity uncommon in psychological diagnoses...
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The Joys and Complexities of Sibling Relationships
Lessons from the Sweat of Our Bras
by MARIONROACH on APRIL 21, 2009
YOU KNOW YOU’RE A SISTER when you’re trying on a bra, and every bra nightmare you’re ever had comes sling-shotting back at your self-esteem as if loaded and launched from a 44DD, and you start to get just the eensiest bit hostile in the dressing room at the pooches and the pouches, and how you look nothing whatever like a Victoria’s Secret model, and you leave 19 bras in the dressing room, buying none, and go crying to the car and call your sister.
Camilla Engman: Beauty, Mystery, and the Search For Connection
by PAIGE on JANUARY 7, 2009
YOU CAN FEEL the craving in Camilla Engman’s work, but also the sense that something is just about to come true. And perhaps that is also the sister story of Engman: A sister to two brothers but not to another girl child, Camilla finds her sisters along the path–in the connection with her audience, in the sisterhood of other artists, and in close sister-friends. “I think we are always looking for our sisters,” says the prolific Swedish artist and illustrator. “Someone who loves you even when you are ugly inside/outside. And someone who wants to follow you on your adventures.”