DOCSLIB.ORG

Freud Or Nietzsche

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Freud Or Nietzsche FREUD OR NIETZSCHE: THE DRIVES, PLEASURE, AND SOCIAL HAPPINESS by Donovan Tateshi Miyasaki A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Philosophy University of Toronto © Copyright by Donovan Tateshi Miyasaki 2004 Freud or Nietzsche: The Drives, Pleasure, and Social Happiness By Donovan Tateshi Miyasaki A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Philosophy University of Toronto © Copyright by Donovan Tateshi Miyasaki 2004 ABSTRACT Many commentators have remarked upon the striking points of correspondence that can be found in the works of Freud and Nietzsche. However, this essay argues that on the subject of desire their work presents us with a radical choice: Freud or Nietzsche. I first argue that Freud’s theory of desire is grounded in the principle of inertia, a principle that is incompatible with his later theory of Eros and the life drive. Furthermore, the principle of inertia is not essentially distinct from his later theory of the death drive. Consequently, Freud’s theory of desire can only be interpreted consistently as a monism of the death drive. I then analyze Nietzsche’s attempt to ground his theory of desire in the concept of the will to power. I argue that Nietzsche’s view of desire is fundamentally opposed to the key elements of Freud’s theory of desire: the principle of constancy, the Freudian definition of the drive, and the pleasure principle. Next, I explicate the stakes of this opposition by analyzing the social consequences of each view for morality and justice. I argue that the Freudian subject seeks to dominate the social other, and that there is an insurmountable conflict between the satisfaction of desire and the demands of social life. Consequently, Freud’s view allows only for a negative ii conception of the social good in which morality is defined as the intrinsically impossible task of eliminating evil, and justice can be achieved only through the equal distribution of instinctual frustration. Finally, I argue that in Nietzsche’s theory of desire there is no essential conflict between individual desire and social life. The Nietzschean subject desires to manifest power in the form of activity that is independent of external agents, not to dominate the other. Consequently, Nietzsche’s view allows for the possibility of a positively defined concept of the social good in which morality is the affirmation and enhancement of every subject’s happiness, and justice can be achieved through the promotion and protection of an equality of power among subjects. iii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 PART I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE THEORY OF DESIRE 1. INERTIA AS THE GROUND OF DESIRE IN FREUDIAN THEORY............................. 9 The Principle of Biological Inertia in Freud’s Theory of Desire....................................... 9 The Principle of Psychical Inertia in Freud’s Theory of Desire...................................... 14 Inertia, the Pleasure Principle, and the Reality Principle ................................................ 18 Inertia and Freud’s Drive Theory .................................................................................... 22 2. THE WILL TO POWER AS THE GROUND OF DESIRE IN NIETZSCHE .................. 26 The Will to Power and Atomism ..................................................................................... 26 The Will to Power and Freud’s Principle of Psychical Inertia ........................................ 32 The Will to Power and the Pleasure Principle ................................................................. 38 The Will to Power and Freud’s Drive Theory ................................................................. 42 3. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF EROS IN FREUD’S THEORY OF DESIRE ........................ 47 What is Eros?................................................................................................................... 48 The Absence of Eros in the Freudian Theory of Sexual and Social Bonds..................... 49 The Incompatibility of Eros with Freud’s Theory of Desire ........................................... 62 iv Freud’s Monism of the Death Drive ................................................................................ 70 PART II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE THEORY OF DESIRE FOR SOCIAL THEORY 4. RADICAL PESSIMISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN FREUD’S SOCIAL THEORY...................................................................................... 81 Two Attempts at a Solution to Radical Pessimism in Freud’s Social Theory................. 81 The Libidinal Relation as Domination............................................................................. 90 The Aim of Inertia in Relation to Social Life............................................................... 90 The Origin of Primary Narcissism............................................................................... 96 The Pleasure-Ego and Love....................................................................................... 102 The Social Bond: A Parody of Eros............................................................................... 114 Neighbours and Enemies ........................................................................................... 115 Justice, Equality in Sacrifice, and Envy..................................................................... 120 Morality, Bad Conscience, and the Primacy of Evil.................................................. 125 5. THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF NIETZSCHE’S THEORY OF THE DRIVE AS WILL TO POWER......................................................................... 130 The Will to Power as Domination ................................................................................. 130 Distinguishing the Will to Power as Force and as Relation...................................... 130 Distinguishing Domination as the Essence of the Will to Power and as Social Domination....................................................................................... 136 The Aim of Desire and the Criteria of Satisfaction and Frustration......................... 142 The Nietzschean Social Subject..................................................................................... 152 v Pleasure, Pain, and the Love of One’s Enemies........................................................ 152 Noble Values and the Possibility of a Noble form of Morality.................................. 164 The Possibility of Good Conscience .......................................................................... 177 The Possibility of a Noble Form of Social Justice..................................................... 184 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................... 192 Freud or Nietzsche: Which “Nietzsche”? ...................................................................... 192 Critical Consequences for Contemporary Philosophy and Psychoanalysis................... 195 Critical Consequences for Freudian Theory .................................................................. 198 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................... 201 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the University of Toronto for providing financial support during the completion of this dissertation. I would also like to thank my advisors Amy Mullin, André Gombay, and Rebecca Comay for their helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends, especially Barbara and Mela, for their patience and encouragement. vii INTRODUCTION Another thing I loathe to hear is an infamous “and”: the Germans say “Goethe and Schiller” — I am afraid they say “Schiller and Goethe” . Don’t people know this Schiller yet? — There are even worse “ands” . Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Although there is a significant body of literature comparing Freud and Nietzsche’s work, the greater part of this literature has highlighted their similarities at the expense of their differences. In the rare cases where the differences between Freud and Nietzsche’s views have been given attention, they have often been treated as relatively inconsequential. It has not generally been appreciated just how profound their differences are. Moreover, in those cases where specific incompatibilities between the two thinkers’ views have been recognized, the explicit consequences of their disagreements have not been sufficiently explored. Finally, comparisons of Freud and Nietzsche’s views have been primarily focused on the topics of the unconscious, repression, and sublimation. Few commentators have compared Freud and Nietzsche’s views of desire, the drives, and pleasure in significant detail. It is the purpose of this essay to remedy these deficiencies by providing a thorough analysis of the radical differences between Freud and Nietzsche’s theories of desire, the drives, and pleasure. I shall argue that their views on the subject are antagonistic to the point of opposition. On the issue of desire, we are presented with a choice: Freud or Nietzsche. Furthermore, I shall attempt to make explicit what is at stake in the confrontation of their views of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chapter 12 Personality
    Chapter 12 Personality Chapter Outline 12.1 The Nature of Personality a Consistency and Distinctiveness Defi ne Personality. b Culture and Evolutionary Processes Shape Personality. 12.2 The Psychoanalytic Perspective a Psychoanalytic Theory Asserts that the Unconscious Controls Behavior. b Freud Divided Personality into the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. c Personality Development Occurs in Psychosexual Stages. d Defense Mechanisms Reduce or Redirect Unconsciously Caused Anxiety. e There Are Many Variations on Psychoanalytic Theory. 12.3 The Humanistic Perspective a Rogers’s Person-Centered Theory Emphasizes Self-Realization. b Maslow’s Self-Actualization Theory Stresses Maximizing Potential. c The Humanistic Perspective Has Been Criticized as Being Overly Optimistic. 12.4 The Trait Perspective a Trait Theories Describe Basic Personality Dimensions. b Factor Analysis Is Used to Identify Personality Traits. c The Five-Factor Model Specifi es Five Basic Traits. d Positive Psychologists Identify Personality Traits that Are Character Strengths. e Critics Challenge Whether Traits Reliably Predict Behavior. 12.5 The Social Cognitive Perspective a Personality Is Shaped by the Interaction of People’s Cognitions, Behavior, and Environment. b Life Experiences Foster Beliefs about Either Control or Helplessness. c Social Cognitive Psychologists Have Extensively Studied the Self. d The Social Cognitive Perspective Has Diffi culty Explaining Nonrational Behavior. 12.6 Measuring Personality a Projective Tests Indirectly Measure Inner Feelings, Motives, and Confl icts. b Objective Tests Ask Direct Questions about a Person’s Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior. 12.7 The Biological Basis of Personality a Personality Is Shaped by Nervous System Arousal and Specifi c BrainActivity. b Both Genetic and Environmental Factors Shape Personality.
    [Show full text]
  • Freud: Memory and the Metapsychological Witch
    Freud: Memory and the Metapsychological Witch Manuel Batsch Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University College London 2015 I, Manuel Batsch confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisors, Juliet Mitchell and Liz Allison for their excellent guidance and generous encouragement during this project. Thanks to their benevolent attention and intelligent advice, I was able to construct and structure my research question. Our supervision meetings were crucial steps in the writing of my thesis and they also remain in my memory as transformative existential moments. I was impressed by the accuracy with which they read and corrected my drafts, a process from which I learnt a great deal. Psychoanalysis and Feminism is an important book in my inner library and often, when I feel threatened by a kind of intellectual inertia, I just have to reread some of its passages to regain a pleasure for thoughts. The seminars and supervisions with Juliet Mitchell have always triggered the same pleasure and inspired in me a form of bravery in thinking. I have been working under the supervision of Liz Allison since my MSc dissertation and throughout these years she has given me the confidence to compose academic work in English. Amongst many other things, I owe to her my introduction to a completely new reading of Derrida. Our Bion reading group was also extremely helpful and had a significant impact on my understanding of metapsychology after Freud.
    [Show full text]
  • This Body, This Civilization, This Repression: an Inquiry Into Freud and Marcuse
    University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2008 This body, this civilization, this repression: An inquiry into Freud and Marcuse Jeff Renaud University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Renaud, Jeff, "This body, this civilization, this repression: An inquiry into Freud and Marcuse" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8272. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8272 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. THIS BODY, THIS CIVILIZATION, THIS REPRESSION: AN INQUIRY INTO FREUD AND MARCUSE by JeffRenaud A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through Philosophy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
    [Show full text]
  • Psyche and History in Shelley and Freud Brent Robida Clemson University, [email protected]
    Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2009 Psyche and History in Shelley and Freud Brent Robida Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Robida, Brent, "Psyche and History in Shelley and Freud" (2009). All Theses. 576. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/576 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PSYCHE AND HISTORY IN SHELLEY AND FREUD A Thesis Presented to The Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts English by Brent Robida May 2009 Accepted by: Dr. Brian McGrath, Committee Chair Dr. Lee Morrissey Dr. Art Young ABSTRACT The comfortable thought is over in our psychical relation to Percy Shelley and Sigmund Freud because the line of reasoning it invokes is chaotic, if only because trying to define psyche and history leads to chaotic conclusions, especially at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Shelley and Freud recognized this and were able to channel it into their art, myth, fable, allegory. The events of their lives, their History, produces itself from chaos (Freud writes across two World Wars, Shelley under the shadow of the French Revolution, Jacobin massacres and Napoleonic wars), which means its producer is chaotic, Divine Chaos, Miltonic Chaos, but chaos it still remains. There is no systematic order to their thought except that systematic order escapes all Thought, true thought, at least.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Existential Psychology Arthur Erwin Wolfgarth University of Nebraska at Omaha
    University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 6-1961 An analysis of existential psychology Arthur Erwin Wolfgarth University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Wolfgarth, Arthur Erwin, "An analysis of existential psychology" (1961). Student Work. 125. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/125 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN ANALYSIS OF EXISTENTIAL. PSYCHOLOGY by Arthur Erwin Wolfgarth A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faoulty of the Department of Psychology University of Omaha In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts June 1961 UMI Number: EP72773 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dtsssrtslioni Publishing UMI EP72773 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 PREFACE The purpose of this thesis is to trace the thread of existential psychological thought from its first system­ atic statements in Denmark through its expansion in Europe to its influence in contemporary thought in the United States, This study begins with S^ren Kierkegaard who cast existential expression into molds that have not broken to the present day.
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche's Naturalism As a Critique of Morality and Freedom
    NIETZSCHE’S NATURALISM AS A CRITIQUE OF MORALITY AND FREEDOM A thesis submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Nathan W. Radcliffe December, 2012 Thesis written by Nathan W. Radcliffe B.S., University of Akron, 1998 M.A., Kent State University, 2012 Approved by Gene Pendleton____________________________________, Advisor David Odell‐Scott___________________________________, Chair, Department of Philosophy Raymond Craig_____________________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTERS I. NIETZSCHE’S NATURALISM AND ITS INFLUENCES....................................................... 8 1.1 Nietzsche’s Speculative‐Methodological Naturalism............................................ 8 1.2 Nietzsche’s Opposition to Materialism ............................................................... 15 1.3 The German Materialist Influence on Nietzsche................................................. 19 1.4 The Influence of Lange on Nietzsche .................................................................. 22 1.5 Nietzsche’s Break with Kant and Its Aftermath................................................... 25 1.6 Influences on Nietzsche’s Fatalism (Schopenhauer and Spinoza)
    [Show full text]
  • Norman O. Brown, 1913–2002
    OBITUARY Norman O. Brown, 1913–2002 orman O. Brown was born in New Mexico in 1913 and educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and at the University of Wisconsin. His tutor at Oxford was NIsaiah Berlin. A product of the 1930s, Brown was active in left-wing politics – for example, in the 1948 Henry Wallace presidential campaign – and his work belongs within the history of Marxist, as well as psychoanalytic, thought. During World War II, he worked in the Office of Strategic Services, where his supervisor was Carl Schorske and his colleagues included Herbert Marcuse and Franz Neumann. Marcuse urged Brown to read Freud, leading, in 1959, to Brownʼs most memorable work, Life Against Death. Brown taught Classics at Wesleyan University and was a member of the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Although Life Against Death made him an icon of the New Left, he successfully eschewed publicity, insisting to the end on his primary identity as teacher. There is still no better introduction to Life Against Death than the one that Brown wrote in 1959. The book was inspired, he explained, by a felt ʻneed to reappraise the nature and destiny of manʼ. The ʻdeep study of Freudʼ was the natural means for this undertaking. His motives, Brown continued, were political in the most profound sense of the term: ʻInheriting from the Protestant tradition a conscience which insisted that intellectual work should be directed toward the relief of manʼs estate, I, like many of my generation, lived through the superannuation of the political categories which informed liberal thought and action in the 1930s.ʼ ʻThose of us who are tempera- mentally incapable of embracing the politics of sin, cynicism and despairʼ, he added, were ʻcompelled to re-examine the classic assumptions about the nature of politics and about the political character of human nature.ʼ How did it come about, at the dawn of the 1960s, that Freud appeared as the suc- cessor to a ʻsuperannuatedʼ, but not yet surpassed, Marxist project? Life Against Death addressed this question.
    [Show full text]
  • Schopenhauer Between Freud, the Buddha and Idealist Aesthetics
    9/10/2015 Articles Consciousness, Literature and the Arts Archive Volume 6 Number 3, December 2005 ___________________________________________________________________ Concepts of Liberation: Schopenhauer between Freud, the Buddha and Idealist Aesthetics. By Stephan Atzert The University of Queensland Introduction In Schopenhauer's philosophy a model of the unconscious is conceptualised, developed into an aesthetic theory and – among other trajectories – set in relation to his appreciation of Indian religious thinking. Despite the fact that Schopenhauer's ideas do not hold a place in the current philosophical canon which would be comparable to that of Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche, they have been very influential. In order to trace the scope as well as the impact of Schopenhauer's model of the unconscious, this article discusses Schopenhauer's reception by Sigmund Freud, as well as parallels between Schopenhauer and Buddhism. The topic of liberation from suffering provides a thematic focus for our enquiry, which ranges from Freud's eclectic use of the term nirvana to Schopenhauerian and Buddhist conceptualisations of liberation and of aesthetic appreciation. It will be shown that Buddhist concepts are helpful to critically understand Schopenhauer's ideas, just as the texts of Schopenhauer serve to historicise Freud's theories. Even though the bases of the two comparisons differ significantly, Schopenhauer's comprehensive and systematic description of the human experience provides their unifying framework. Schopenhauer's concepts were a decisive and largely unacknowledged influence on Freud's metapsychology. This will be outlined in “Schopenhauer and Freud”, the next section, followed by a discussion of Freud's use of the term “nirvana principle”, which led de Silva to believe that “in the philosophy of Schopenhauer may be present, a link between Buddhism and Freud” (de Silva, 1973, 187).
    [Show full text]
  • Freud and Epicurean Philosophy: Revisiting Drive Theory
    Contemporary Psychoanalysis,2014,Vol.50,No.3:395–417. C William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology and ⃝ the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society ISSN: 0010-7530 print / 2330-9091 online DOI: 10.1080/00107530.2014.922859 JONATHAN YAHALOM, M.A. FREUD AND EPICUREAN PHILOSOPHY: REVISITING DRIVE THEORY Abstract. This article reviews Epicurean philosophy to expose Freud’s drive theory as overly quantitative and lacking a qualitative dimension. Epicurean philosophy is congruent with fundamental premises in psychoanalysis, and contributes a qualitative and quantitative theory of pleasure. Moreover, Epicurean philosophy is compatible with fundamental tenets within relational psychoanalysis, indicat- ing that drive theory is relevant—and possibly constitutive—to the relational perspective. After reviewing Epicurean philosophy, the article returns to Freud’s conceptualization of drive. Arguments are made against Freud’s hypothesis of a death drive, insofar as Freud believed that organisms are motivated by the pur- suit of pleasure in an isolated individualistic manner. The article maintains that a critical exploration of Epicureanism challenges our tendency to equate classical drive theory with material reductionism. This carries significant implications for contemporary psychoanalysis and its interpretation of the drives. Keywords: Epicurean philosophy, drive theory, pleasure principle, relational psychoanalysis Introduction Relational theorists have critiqued Freud’s drive theory, arguing that in- terpersonal factors—not intrapsychic drives—define mental life. For ex- ample, Greenberg (1991) calls for the “radical rejection of drive [theory]” because “all motivation unfolds from our personal experience of ex- change with others” (p. vii). Motivation theory certainly benefits from this Address correspondence to Jonathan Yahalom, M.A., Duquesne University, Psychol- ogy Department, 600 Forbes Avenue, 544 College Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15282.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of Symbols: a Critical Dialectic Of
    KRITIKE VOLUME FOUR NUMBER TWO (DECEMBER 2010) 1-17 Article Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of Symbols: A Critical Dialectic of Suspicion and Faith Alexis Deodato S. Itao Introduction ritical theory, which started in Germany through the members of the Frankfurt School1 in the early 1920’s, has inspired a number of non- CGerman philosophical schools and philosophers to establish their own unique critical theories. Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005), who is one of the most celebrated contemporary philosophers in France, is one of those who fashioned a “unique version of critical theory.”2 David Kaplan reveals that Ricoeur is even “committed to a conception of philosophy as critical theory resulting in personal and social transformation and progressive politics.”3 However, Ricoeur’s philosophy as a whole has mainly been considered hermeneutical, that is, one concerned mostly with questions involving interpretation. Emerita Quito ascertains, for instance, that “Ricoeur’s entire philosophy finally centered on hermeneutics.”4 Likewise, Don Ihde confirms how hermeneutics eventually became the “guiding thread which unites” all of Ricoeur’s diverse interests.5 Indeed, Ricoeur devoted much of his writings in 1 Douglas Kellner relates that “the term ‘Frankfurt School’ refers to the work of the members of the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) which was established in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1923 as the first Marxist-oriented research centre affiliated with a major German university. Under its director, Carl Grünberg, the institute’s work
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche, Lacan, and the Sinthome of Tragic Wisdom
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-14-2020 1:30 PM Language After God: Nietzsche, Lacan, and the Sinthome of Tragic Wisdom Dylan J. Hughes The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Dylan J. Hughes 2020 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Hughes, Dylan J., "Language After God: Nietzsche, Lacan, and the Sinthome of Tragic Wisdom" (2020). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6961. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6961 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Supervisor Pero, Allan The University of Western Ontario This dissertation/thesis is available at Scholarship@Western: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6961 Abstract Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory of the “sinthome” and Friedrich Nietzsche’s tragic philosophy of self-overcoming are deeply complementary theories of linguistic subjectivity, each describing the transformative potential of a kind of art at the centre of the inherently symptomatic experience of language. Lacan’s final seminars reimagine the psychoanalytic symptom as the potential site where each subject might forge a sinthome: a singular structure of creative agency in the experience of desire and truth. Nietzsche’s tragic philosophy works to uncover the problematically aesthetic and creative character of reality, suggesting that one must affirm and cultivate such creativity in order to overcome the tragic character of existence.
    [Show full text]
  • Caroline Edwards from Eros to Eschaton
    Caroline Edwards From Eros to Eschaton: Herbert Marcuse’s Liberation of Time This is a pre-print (i.e. final draft pre-refereeing) version of an article published in the journal Telos, Issue 165 (Winter 2013), pp. 91-114. The article should be cited from its final published version. For more information see the publisher website: http://journal.telospress.com/content/2013/165.toc This pre-print is published for reference use only, in accordance with the publisher copyright polices for green open access and self-archiving. For more information, see: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php?source=journal&sourceid=8601&la=en &fIDnum=%7C&mode=simple This pre-print version is the copyright of Dr Caroline Edwards, Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Literature, Birkbeck College, University of London [email protected] Caroline Edwards From Eros to Eschaton: Herbert Marcuse’s Liberation of Time Abstract: This article explores what Gershom Scholem has called Herbert Marcuse’s “unacknowledged ties to [his] Jewish heritage.” At the core of Marcuse’s vision of transformed, non-repressive social relations is a struggle over time, which rests upon a distinctly Jewish approach to the twin questions of remembrance and redemption. One example of this approach is the temporal dialectic between alienated labor time and the timelessness of pleasure’s desire for eternity which underpins Marcuse’s analysis in Eros and Civilisation (1956). This dialectic rests upon Marcuse’s reading of the Freudian opposition between life-affirming Eros and the death drive; which he traces through a phylogenetic reading of primal society’s recurring crime of patricide that continues to haunt advanced industrial capitalism.
    [Show full text]