A short look at Freud

Today, I was planning on doing some work with Ovid, but forgot my book at home.  So I guess for a substitute—I will write about some interesting mythological themes that are prevalent in Freud’s work.  I am of course going to use Eliade as starting point—so to the reader—keep this in mind: this blog is simply a brief study (through the filter of our class topics, of course) of perhaps one of the most important figures of the last 100 years. 

First, let me begin blog by highlighting some of the crucial points pertaining to Freud, in Eliade’s study, Myth and Reality.  In Eliade’s fifth chapter, Time Can Be Overcome, he discusses the importance of beginnings, and even more specifically, the importance of mastering beginnings in archaic societies: “knowledge of the origin of each thing (animal, plant, cosmic object, etc.) confers a kind of magical mastery over it.”  This pursuit of understanding origins is most certainly not exclusive to archaic societies.  Rather (and this sentence is paraphrased from Myth and Reality) the 18^th and 19^th century ushered in waves—in the western world at least—of disciplines specifically designated to objectively analyze the origins of all things.  One could perhaps refer to my last blog on Foucault: the invisible space of order, which seems to be essential in determining origins.  Anyway, let’s move back to Eliade’s discussion of Freud.  In this time period, the 18^th and 19^th century, extensive categorization encompassed many things, including the origin of self.  Like the archaic societies, Eliade finds it particularly intriguing that “other vital sciences stress especially the precariousness and imperfection of the beginnings…(where as psychoanalytic theory stresses) the bliss of the origin and beginnings of the human being, and the idea that through memory, or by a ‘going back”, one can relive certain traumatic incidents of early childhood”.  And I am assuming that when one can return to this paradisal time prior to the “bliss before break”, one can obtain a certain level of mastery over it.  Strange, one would think that with the rise of the objective sciences, mythic structures would disappear—yet they remain.

I am well aware that Eliade is trying to avoid too much of a comparison between things seemingly unrelated—yet, I don’t think I have too much at stake, and I can afford to make comparisons between his theories—and damn I wish I had my Ovid with me—and some mythic elements. 

Let’s see, I am currently on Purdue’s website, and it has an introduction to Freud’s psychosexual development.  Here is the link:  http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/psychoanalysis/freud.html

 In it the author, Dino Felluga state that: “Freud understood desire (specifically sexual desire) in terms of formative drives, instincts, and appetites that "naturally" determined one's behaviors and beliefs, even as we continually repress those behaviors and beliefs”.  Fascinating, I am sure we can all think of at least 5 stories in the metamorphosis that address a theme of desire.  Let’s move on to how Freud discusses these desires as they develop during childhood.  For the purpose of me not straining myself while writing, I will cut and copy the stages, while mentioning specific stories that demonstrate his notions throughout Ovid.   

0-2 years of age. Early in your development, all of your desires were oriented towards your lips and your mouth, which accepted food, milk, and anything else you could get your hands on (the oral phase). The first object of this stage was, of course, the mother's breast, which could be transferred to auto-erotic objects (thumb-sucking). The mother thus logically became your first "love-object," already a displacement from the earlier object of desire (the breast). When you first recognized the fact of your father, you dealt with him by identifying yourself with him; however, as the sexual wishes directed to your mother grew in intensity, you became possessive of your mother and secretly wished your father out of the picture (the Oedipus complex). This Oedipus complex plays out throughout the next two phases of development.

One could mention the story of Phaethon, trying to usurp his father—phaethon in search of obtaining the reins of the sexually desirable. Also, one could mention the actual story of Oedipus.   

2-4 years of age. Following the oral phase, you entered the sadistic-anal phase, which is split between active and passive impulses: the impulse to mastery on the one hand, which can easily become cruelty; the impulse to scopophilia (love of gazing), on the other hand. This phase was roughly coterminous with a new auto-erotic object: the rectal orifice (hence, the term "sadistic-anal phase"). According to Freud, the child's pleasure in defecation is connected to his or her pleasure in creating something of his or her own, a pleasure that for women is later transferred to child-bearing.

This stage is perhaps best represented in the various stories of Book VI—Arachne and Niobe in particular.  One is the master of their domain, yet cruelty is a consequence.     

4-7 years of age. Finally, you entered the phallic phase, when the penis (or the clitoris, which, according to Freud, stands for the penis in the young girl) become your primary object-cathexis. In this stage, the child becomes fascinated with urination, which is experienced as pleasurable, both in its expulsion and retention. The trauma connected with this phase is that of castration, which makes this phase especially important for the resolution of the Oedipus complex. Over this time, you began to deal with your separation anxieties (and your all-encompassing egoism) by finding symbolic ways of representing and thus controlling the separation from (not to mention your desire for) your mother. You also learned to defer bodily gratification when necessary. In other words, your ego became trained to follow the reality-principle and to control the pleasure-principle, although this ability would not be fully attained until you passed through the latency period. In resolving the Oedipus complex, you also began to identify either with your mother or your father, thus determining the future path of your sexual orientation. That identification took the form of an "ego-ideal," which then aided the formation of your "super-ego": an internalization of the parental function (which Freud usually associated with the father) that eventually manifested itself in your conscience (and sense of guilt). 

I still need to find a story that more precisely matches.


7-12 years of age. Next followed a long "latency period" during which your sexual development was more or less suspended and you concentrated on repressing and sublimating your earlier desires and thus learned to follow the reality-principle. During this phase, you gradually freed yourself from your parents (moving away from the mother and reconciling yourself with your father) or by asserting your independence (if you responded to your incestuous desires by becoming overly subservient to your father). You also moved beyond your childhood egoism and sacrificed something of your own ego to others, thus learning how to love others.

I might be wrong, but I think one could state that Demeter and Presophne have elements of this stage.  Young girl, on her own (lacks sexual desires) is kidnapped by Pluto, yet learns to deal with the separation from the mother—also learns to deal with the reality: learns to love all parties.     

13 years of age onward (or from puberty on). Your development over the latency period allowed you to enter the final genital phase. At this point, you learned to desire members of the opposite sex and to fulfill your instinct to procreate and thus ensure the survival of the human species. 

This stage, for me, is perhaps best demonstrated in Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.  The rape is done to the young boy—sexual anatomy is rendered ambiguous.   
      
For me, the parallels seem to be uncanny.  Yet it is interesting how mythology has been categorized as purely story, where as Freud is more substantial.  Perhaps it is his theories’ ability to assign a mythological importance to all our lives.