#psychoanalytic

[philosophors]

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”

— Carl Jung, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

[odettecarotte]

Two book pairings I have enjoyed recently:

Britney Spears, The Woman in Me, followed by the chapter on Hysterical (Histrionic) Psychologies in Nancy McWilliams's classic Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process, 2nd edition.

Two wildly different takes on consent, both life-changing: Betty Martin will teach you how to feel consent in your body with The Art of Receiving and Giving: The Wheel of Consent and Avgi Saketopoulou will fuck up all that you didn't want to know about consent with Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia.

I will be quote-blogging these for my own pleassure, edification and future reference, and maybe yours as well!

[lacan-psychoananalysisaspraxis]

One of Lacan’s most oft-repeated formulas is: ‘man’s desire is the desire of the Other’. (Seminar 11). This can be understood in many complementary ways, of which the following are the most important.

One of Lacan’s most oft-repeated formulas is: ‘man’s desire is the desire of the Other’. (Seminar 11). This can be understood in many complementary ways, of which the following are the most important.

1. Desire is essentially ‘desire of the Other’s desire’, which means both desire to be the object of another’s desire, and desire for recognition by another. Lacan takes this idea from Hegel, via Kojève, who states:

Desire is human only if the one desires, not the body, but the Desire of the other...that is to say, if he wants to be ‘desired’ or ‘loved’, or, rather, ‘recognised’ in his human value.... In other words, all human, anthropogenetic Desire...is, finally, a function of the desire for ‘recognition’.

Kojève, 1947:6)

Kojève goes on to argue (still following Hegel) that in order to achieve the desired recognition, the subject must risk his own life in a struggle for pure prestige. That desire is essentially desire to be the object of another’s desire is clearly illustrated in the first ‘time’ of the Oedipus complex, when the subject desires to be the phallus for the mother.

Evans, Dylan. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Routledge. 1996.

[lhoellh]

Stranger from hell analysis

I have rewatched both Strangers from hell and Hannibal NBC and the similarity in characterization is uncanny. But first, I just want to explain that although it seems the title "Strangers from hell" is the widely accepted title in English, "Hell is other people" is so much more poetical don't you think?

Throughout the series, it has been thoroughly discussed that the people that surround us are the ones that make our lives for better or worse and that is what we see with Yoon Jongwoo. From his poor mother, his brother, the residence, and his job. But what really stuck with me is that it is not the place that is making Yoon Jongwoo's life miserable. It's the people around him. He does not consider her mother and his brother and maybe his girlfriend the burden or his final straw to insanity, but the people in his residence and his work. This may seem like a given, but I just like this when thinking about this series.

--- The next will contain spoilers. Be warned---

Now the similarities between Hannibal NBC and Strangers from Hell, is, of course, the 2 main characters.

From the psychoanalytic theory where childhood is very important, both our sugar killer's childhood is not really put importance and we are only given small amounts of information regarding this regard. This information is enough. In psychology, mothers are very important figures in our life as a baby once. This mother figure is what makes us who we are today (well as I have said, mostly on what the psychoanalytic theory suggests). But from the Hannibal nbc and strangers from hell series, both Hannibal Lecter and Seo Moonjo are orphaned and have no clear distinct features of a mother figure to learn the ways of society or as Alfred Adler's theory teaches them social interest. However, since they live as the adults that we see they are, we know that someone took care of them.

My question is, in the psychoanalytic view, does their lack of parental love, neglect, and obvious lack of social interest, the reason why these individuals are who they are as adults? In a humanistic-existential theory most specifically Erich Fromm's theory, both show necrophilia, or the love of death, and malignant narcissism, or the extreme obsession with oneself, and this characterization, if spoken to, will make Hannibal and Seo Moonjo itch. Additionally, they are perfectionist and thinks that everyone is beneath them. Overall, these two individuals are toxic and beyond repair.

2. Hannibal and Moonjo are seen as smart and educated. We know that they are in the medical field, and we understand that they both are good at doing it. Their jobs help them with their murder hobbies, and their medical knowledge helps them with their signature killing style.

3. Gift-giving! In terms of love languages, it is seen that both Hannibal and Moonjo-despite being obsessive lovers- share their own form of love in acts of service. With Hannibal with his livers and sausages (if you know what I mean), it is understandable that he feeds it to people in his small social circle-but I see that as satirical where their high social standing makes them ignorant even to the littlest things like the food that they are eating. But with Will... Hannibal feeds Will with the intention of acceptance and affirmation that what Hannibal eats tastes good, and thus, Will should have them too. It is twisted, but who are we to judge his form of love?

We can also see this with Moonjo's bracelet full of teeth. Like Hannibal who has a fascination with human meat, Moonjo has a fascination with teeth. And like Hannibal, Moonjo shares them with Yoon Jongwoo because if he wears the bracelet, then maybe, maybe Jongwoo accepts Moonjo's love. Oh, I almost forgot the human meat that he feeds to everyone. But what makes it special is Moonjo's action while he feeds them to Jongwoo (I am being delusional but aren't we all?) where it looks like he feeds them to jongwoo so that jongwoo can understand moonjo better.

4. Throughout the end of the series, we can notice a similarity in the story resolution and how it shapes our two main characters.

a.) First with Yoon Jongwoo. At first, he has this life that in a sense, I still consider normal since it does not affect his daily life. He has his own problem with his poor mother, and his brother which seems to be an equally financial liability that makes him go to the city to finally be alone and work. It is not perfect, but it is his life that he just lives through as part of his lifetime. Toward the climax, with all the evils he has been through, the psychological abuse that not a normal person can handle is the last straw for his patience. I personally believe that a normal individual is judged by his patience in society, and if this patience does not exist, is what makes things problematic. Because of this, as we follow through to the end, he snaps and kills everyone including the very man that is obsessed with him- Seo Moonjo.

What I like about this end is that with all of the things he has gone through, we don't necessarily know how he would live his life after. We know that the current end tells us that what he did to Moonjo will be considered as self-defense and he gets to live in society to act like a normal human being. But can he? And, what then? We do not know.

b.) Now with Will Graham. An individual who has many mental illnesses that makes him think so differently than an average person, which in a sense, might makes his life a little bit harder than most considering that he does not follow the norms of the society, but like Yoon Jongwoo, he lives with it. Following through the 2nd season regarding his arrests, we noticed a turn of personality, specifically, hostility towards Hannibal. Will's unlawful arrest draws his last patience and at last! His becoming. I am curious to hear more of Hannibal's thoughts about this considering that this is part of his design, and yes, he cannot control what happens next, but what does Hannibal really think of this? Does he love it? Was he surprised? Aroused? Anyways, this new Will that we will eventually see in season 3 was very romantic unlike Strangers from Hell, and honestly, I am here for it!

If I have watched this when I was younger, I think I would have hated the ending. But since I watched it at the prime age of 18 (still too young I guess?), I LOVE LOVE LOVE it so much. The love that should not exist in the first place, a love that is so forbidden that you just have to choose which one, and the becoming of what you two truly want is my peak romance. Nobody writes romance like this anymore I guess...

Anyways! I just got really excited with this since I think I have found my favorite genre of literature and it's just murder bl haha.

[bizarreauhavre]

???

[to-touch-the-earth]

on wombs, blood and spaces

(2023)

[petri808]

Lmao I’m watching a court show episode where the gf is suing the ex bf for money she gave him for “legitimate” therapy and he spent it on spankotherapy. The above is from me googling it. The “dr” talks so much like a con man and the defendant is like the dr could see past his anger and his upset… duh that’s what you went for right?! The dr is not a real doctor AT ALL.

I get that there are some therapies that aren’t the norm. Like I actually am interested in reality based type therapies where things aren’t sugar coated and would be questionable to many… I can see how spankotherapy has notes of psychoanalytic or Freudian system. We know that the physical pain (like from spanking) causes hormones like endorphins to be released— so does sex and elated emotions. It also disrupts the mental turmoil you’re experiencing which allows you to refocus on other things— like positives. It’s not hard to put two and two together.

BUT BUT BUT omg DO NOT sign up for stuff that’s not with a legitimate psychologist or psychiatrist because if something goes wrong you’ll have no recourse against a fake unlicensed doctor. “But the good reviews and testimonials..” yeah it’s not hard to fake those. People who are down are easy pickings for charlatans that’s why they target them, so don’t let yourself be conned.

[neulich-in-der-sitzung]

Tuts

Noch

Weh?

[starry-skies-116]

Y'all were NOT lying when you said Freud confused libido with attraction like an absolute goddamn dumbass. Literally my teacher was talking about the Oedipus complex not long ago in class and I wanted to stab my eardrums out. I've just about had enough of learning about this jackass.

LIBIDO AND ATTRACTION ARE NOT THE SAME FUCKING THING OMFG. And also, don't forget that not only did this man sexualize literal fucking children, but also implied that they have inherent sexual desires, therefore calling them sexual beings.

What the FUCK.

[soulinkpoetry]

Shadow work is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on the “shadow self,” which is the parts of the psyche that people often keep hidden. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung first developed the concept.

Jung used the term “shadow self” to describe the things people repress or do not like to acknowledge. He theorized that it is a counterweight to the persona, which is the self that people present to others.

Although the shadow self can include negative impulses, such as anger and resentment, Jung believed that it also held the potential for positive impulses, such as creativity. He felt that the shadow self is integral to a person’s experience of the world and their relationships.

He also thought that a person could gain a better understanding of themselves and become more balanced by working with their shadow self.

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Source credit: Medically reviewed by Yalda Safai, MD, MPH — By Zawn Villines on August 30, 2022

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[philosophors]

“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

— Sigmund Freud, “Letters of Sigmund Freud”

[lacan-psychoananalysisaspraxis]

In contemporary treatments of depression, [t]he interior life of the sufferer is left unexamined … Depression … is conceived of as a biological problem like a bacterial infection, which requires a specific biological remedy.

In contemporary treatments of depression,[t]he interior life of the sufferer is left unexamined … Depression … is conceived of as a biological problem like a bacterial infection, which requires a specific biological remedy. Sufferers have to be returned to their former productive and happy states … the exploration of human interiority is being replaced with a fixed idea of mental hygiene.

Leader, D. (2008) The New Black. London: Penguin.

[andreineruda]

my art application for an art organization in my university.

—CAER

[nicklloydnow]

“A patient is always surprised when he is told something that unconsciously he already knows. This follows from our designation of surprise as the reaction to the fulfillment of an unconscious expectation. He will take in what was formerly known to him and has only been alienated, as if it were something new, and will repel it. We may now understand the effect, which often does not appear until later, of such a surprising communication, if we recognize it as a kind of psychical shock that it takes time to master.

We shall not be put off by the fact that the patient experiences these surprises within his ego, although he thinks that he is well acquainted with his own inner life. It will seem strange to us that the analyst, too, who has such wide experience, is largely dependent upon receiving such knowledge from unknown powers of the ego, and upon listening for the stirrings within him in tracking the hidden meaning of psychical phenomena. Where the analyst's idea penetrates to the profoundest depths of the other's inner life, it may be recognized as the offspring of what is repressed in the analyst and appears to him as something alien. In short, to sum up the matter: The most vital knowledge obtained by the analyst of the unconscious-repressed is, for him too, a surprise. It is true that this surprise reaction will lose intensity as the analyst gains insight and deeper psychological knowledge. There may come a time when it does not appear at all. But at least in the early years of an analyst's work it remains as a sure signal that his own unconscious is involved in the recognition of unconscious relations. It is not logical reflection and theoretical learning that constitute the core of the preconscious and unconscious knowledge, so helpful to the psychologist in later years in recognizing repressed processes, but the memory-traces of the surprise he has experienced. If, in our analyses of mental effects, we can so often infer hidden, unconscious motives, the inference is of value, not so much as a logical operation but rather as the outcome of repeated insight into the mind that surprised the analyst at first.

We mistrust psychologists who declare that they experience no such surprises, that the unconscious of those whom they study is immediately transparent to them and easy to penetrate. There may be psychoanalysts of such a nature. They are, so to speak, professional experts in the depths of the human soul. The netherworld is their oyster. The psychologist "who is surprised" then stands consciously opposed to those for whom there are no surprises left in the inner life. If these gentlemen boast that they find it easy "to read the other person," that the unconscious lies before them like an open book, then they do not know how to read it. The wonders of the inner reality are hidden from their sight. I know that there are many psychoanalysts who shrink from what is astonishing and set up a defense against what is sur prising in the psychological field, and try to protect themselves against it. They put up a barrier of theoretical learning, to parry and intercept it. But the best of our profession, the most valuable of our art and craft, have learned to appreciate the heuristic value of surprising ideas emerging from the unconscious, and gladly welcome them. (You shall be welcome whenever you come.)

The surprise that is felt when the unconscious meaning of individual phenomena is recognized, when the latent significance of individual symptoms, dreams, strange reactions, is understood, may increase at a later stage, toward the end of the process of analysis. When we survey the development of a neurosis or a special character, our surprise does not diminish when we recognize how the co-operation or confict of particular impulses has produced just this emotional result, how inevitably and yet how naturally just this type of character arose in the play of psychical forces. And so, when his task is accomplished, the psychologist is struck with amazement as he surveys what he has seen of the dynamic and economic conditions of the inner processes. His incipient understanding of the methods by which our mental machinery works will not lessen his amazement, but rather increase it.” (pages 245 - 247)

[thebluemoonlady]

Ego, Id, and Superego in NBC's Hannibal

Great analysis that I've found recently on youtube 👆🏼 on the as always, compellingly disturbing Dr Lecter.

By exploring the concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis, it provides greater understanding for characters like Alana Bloom (superego) or Dr Bedelia du Maurier (ego). It portrays The Stag Man (Wendigo), symbolic apparition seen by Will Graham as the Freudian id.

Through the analysis we can find out what these specific characters and symbols mean in different stages of the show for Hannibal and his psyche.

Extremely interesting and thought provoking. Definitely deserves more views and likes :)

[chnawamin]

“The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endless rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which one may be optimistic about the future of mankind.”

Sigmund Freud