1. Drooling the Drool of Regret into the Pillow of Remorse…
Chapter 24 Notes

2. Understanding the Irrational…
…yea, that joke’s just too easy…
Friedrich Nietzsche glorified the irrational, believing that Western bourgeois society was immoral and incapable of any real cultural creativity because of its excessive emphasis on the rational
Nietzsche believed emotions, passions, and instincts were more important than reason
Reason, he argued, played little role in human life because humans were at the mercy of irrational life forces
Nietzsche’s biggest target was Christianity
This “slave morality” had obliterated the human impulse for life and crushed the human will
“God is dead”  Europeans killed Him and it was no longer possible to believe in some kind of cosmic order
Eliminating God and Christian morality had liberated human beings and made it possible to create a higher kind of being called the supermensch (superman)
Superior intellectuals must free themselves from the ordinary thinking of the masses, create their own values, and lead the masses
This is kind of like the Law and Order SVU episode I saw when a psychiatrist amputated legs to allow women to see how beautiful they could be if their mind allowed them to go to a better place…um, without their legs…(yea, it was a weird episode and the plot didn’t really come together…Duhn Duhn.)
Hitler used Nietzsche’s ideas as justification for his philosophies but most believe Nietzsche did not intend for his beliefs to be used as evil
Nietzsche rejected and condemned political democracy, social reform, and universal suffrage

3. Understanding the irrational…
…Reilly…
…(Okay, so just because the joke is easy doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done)
Henri Bergson accepted rational, scientific thought as a practical instrument for providing useful knowledge but maintained that it was incapable of arriving at truth or ultimate reality
Reality could not be divided into analyzable parts
Reality was a whole that could only be grasped intuitively and experienced directly
When we analyze, we have but a description, rather than the reality we experienced
It’s a very existential concept

4. Understanding the irrational…
…Ben’s out-of-nowhere questions on periodization…
Georges Sorel liked the concept of murder…
…However, it had to be murder with a purpose
Sorel combined the philosophies or Nietzsche and Bergson with revolutionary socialism to advocate violent action
Sorel believed the only sure way to achieve the aims of socialism was through violence
To destroy capitalism, he recommended the use of the general strike, envisioning it as a mythic image that had the power to inspire workers to take violent, heroic action against the capitalist order
Still, the ruling body would be a small elite group because the masses were too dumb

5. Understanding the Unconscious…
Sigmund Freud is wacky
Freud’s psychoanalysis was the interpretation of dreams
Human behavior, Freud believed, was largely determined by the unconscious, earlier experiences, and inner forces of which people were largely oblivious
Freud relied on hypnosis and dreams to get into Andrew’s innermost thoughts....
Freud believed that some experiences influenced one’s life but still remained unconscious…why? Because of the concept of repression
Much like many of you will do with things in this class, repression leads to blotting out unsettling experiences from conscious awareness, but they still become part of the unconscious
For example, I can open your eyes and take you wonder by wonder
Over sideways and under, on a magic carpet ride.
Unbelievable sights, indescribable feelings!
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky!
A Whole New World! (Don’t you dare close your eyes!)
A Whole New World
These unconscious thoughts are broken down into three parts: the id, ego, and superego

6. Id
The id was the center of unconscious drives and was ruled by what Freud termed the pleasure principle
It’s what you always wanted to do when no one was watching…heh heh heh…
Freud believed humans direct their energy towards pleasure and away from pain and the id contained our lustful drives and desires, our crude appetites and impulses
The id is why you take risks and seek adventure

7. Ego …Also known as a Vargo…
Freud’s ego was the seat of reason and the coordinator of the inner life
It was governed by the reality principle, that while humans were dominated by the pleasure principle, a true pursuit of pleasure was not feasible
The reality principle meant that people rejected pleasure so that they might live together in society
It’s kinda how this class is able to coexist without us killing each other…
…(even if we want to crucify Nathan…)

8. Superego
The superego was the locus of conscience and represented the inhibitions and moral values that society in general, and parents in particular, imposed on people
This forced the ego to curb the unsatisfactory drives of the id
(in other words, it tells Lindsey to keep quiet in class despite wanting to burst out in uproarious laughter on a near-daily basis, as the id would want to do)

9. (Love) is a Battlefield…0
Freud felt the id, ego, and superego were in constant battle
The ego and superego exerted restraining influences on the unconscious id and repressed or kept out of consciousness what they wanted to
Then again, Freud thought the boys craved their moms and girls craved their dads sexually, so take all of this with a grain of salt…
If we all thought that, we’d probably repress those feelings too…
Repression began in childhood and psychoanalysis was accomplished through a dialogue between psychotherapist and patient
The therapist probed deeply into memory in order to retrace the chain of repression all the way back to its childhood origins
Making the conscious mind aware of the unconscious and its repressed contents resolved the patient’s psychic conflict
Oh yea, and many of his ideas were eventually proved wrong