Transcript
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Okay. Um good morning. Today we do um Sigma Freud. Uh first what I will do is
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I will put Freud in the context of the western religious intellectual and
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literary tradition. All right. So in the beginning um the main religion for us
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humans during the um ice age was animism.
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Okay. And the idea of animism is that we humans are no are no different from
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every other living conscious being in the world. Uh we are like the trees. We
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are like the animals. We’re all interconnected together. And life is
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just a cycle um of life and death, birth and rebirth.
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All right. And this is this religion is still around today in many primitive societies for example in the Amazon. And
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then we transition to the mother
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goddess. So as we became more agricultural, fertility was more more
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important. We need to have more children and we needed to grow more crops. And so
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we began to worship the mother goddess and women were of very high status uh at
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this stage in history. But as populations grew and towns came into
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being, they came into competition with each other. They start to war against each other and this created
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polytheism. Polytheism is the idea that
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each place has its own god. That’s its patron. And when these places come into
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conflict and war, the way they settle disputes is the losing party, their god
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becomes servant to the winning god. And this creates the idea of the pantheon
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that we see in Greek Roman mythologies as well as Norse mythologies. Now the
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radical break from this tradition was the birth of
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montheism. Now um there’s going to be a lot of scholarly debate about which was
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the first monotheistic religion. Some say um there are certain Egyptian cults
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that were monotheistic. Some say the Jews were. Some say the Zoroastrians were. in this class. Um, what you what
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you learn is actually it was the Christians who were the first true
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monotheistic religion. And the reason why is the Christians introduced the
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idea of the Holy
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Trinity. All right? Can remember what the Holy Trinity is. The Holy Trinity. The idea is
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God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These are
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different entities, but they are co-equal to each other. They are separate but unified.
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They are different but equal. And this idea um it’s very hard for us
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to logically reconcile. The only way for us to understand this is if God is both
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nothing and everything. Therefore, it excludes everything. There can be no
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other God with our God. Okay? And this is the idea of montheism.
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And the power of montheism is that for the first time in human history, it creates the idea of the individual
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because when God is everything, you have a direct connection with God and it removes you from the
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community. Okay? Now this will create a lot of problems
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in the future. But at this point in history, remember monotheism is being
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promoted by the Roman Empire as a way to consolidate its rule over its vast
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territory. At this stage in history, this is not a problem. And the reason why is mediating you and God is the
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Catholic Church. But not only that, the Catholic Church
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mediates God for everyone. So in this way the church create its own
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community. Okay. So at this stage in history this is not a problem. But
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remember um the church becomes corrupt and there are many religious form reformers who
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believe that you don’t really need the church in order to access God. In fact,
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you have a moral imperative to access God directly through the Bible. You have to read the B Bible by yourself and you
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have to interpret it properly. Okay? And so obviously the most sim reformer is
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Martin Luther. Now this is important because what will happen is by limiting
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the church you create direct direct access to God and this creates the idea
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of crisis in faith.
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The idea of crisis in faith is how do you truly know as a person
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whether or not you love God and how do you know God loves you? Think about your
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mother, right? You know your mother loves you and you know you love your mother, but there are many days when you
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really hate your mother and you fight with your mother. Okay. So um it’s hard for us not
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to doubt ourselves. And so this creates the crisis in faith because um in
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Protestinism you are required to show absolute faith and devotion in God. If
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you doubt, if you hesitate, you will be condemned to hell. Right? So this
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creates idea of crisis in faith. Um historically there have been many solutions to this problem. different um
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uh prophets have proposed different solutions. So let’s look at three different solutions. All right. So the
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first solution is the idea of wealth accumulation. All right. So the
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these are the Calvinists, right? They argue that to show your true faith in
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God and for you to prove to yourself God truly loves you, you make a lot of money. Right?
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That is a testament to the power of your faith, wealth accumulation. So that’s one solution. It’s a very popular
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solution. It’s what gives us capitalism today. The second solution is that if
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jihad, you will die for your faith. You’ll sacrifice yourself to promote the
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truth of God. Right? That’s also a solution. Um and then there’s one more solution that we will discuss today and
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it’s hard for us to truly understand. So I’m I’m going to take some time to explain it fully. Okay. This is the idea
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of
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transgression. So um let me explain it to you slowly. The idea is this.
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You must demonstrate complete and abute faith in God to be one of the elect to
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go to heaven. To do so, you must demonstrate
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courage. Um you must um demonstrate fanaticism.
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The best way to do that is to prove yourself to God by rejecting the laws of
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men, by rejecting human morality, by
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um rejecting social taboos, by breaking social taboss as you demonstrate your faith in God. Right? Now, I know this
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sounds like a strange idea. Um but let me give you an example to show you what
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this means. Let’s just say that in school I decide to start a new class and
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this new class is called individual empowerment. And my very first
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assignment to all my students is I want you guys to go shoplift. I want you guys
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to go steal a piece of candy from a small
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store. And of course you are disgusted and you are appalled by this suggestion.
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What if you get caught? Well, you might get expelled from school. You might be
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uh jailed. Your parents may punish you. You may be outcast from
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society. And then I tell you as and then I tell you have faith.
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Trust me, when you do this and you break the social taboo that’s preventing you
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from real realizing your full potential, you will feel an extreme sense of
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exhilaration, liberation, excitement, and this will motivate you to do greater things
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in life. By breaking taboos, by transgression against society and
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showing your true faith in God, you will master your
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destiny. Okay? And so you guys go and you go steal something from the store.
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You get away with it and guess what? You feel excited. You feel exhilarated. You
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feel energized. Okay? And that’s the idea of transgression. And um this has
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always been a very uh um this and and this has been around for us for like
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hundreds of years as well. Okay. So these are the three main ways that historically
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um the religious practitioners practitioners practitioners have tried to resolve the issue of the crisis of
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faith right wealth accumulation that’s calminist jihad and but you you also have transgression remember
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transgression it’s very important for discussion okay so remember this idea now um another way to resolve the crisis
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in faith is through philosophy epistemology
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ology. Epistemology. Epistemology is really just means the theory of
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knowledge. How do ideas come together? What does knowledge
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come from? How do we know what we know? Right? Because the question of crisis of faith is essentially how do we know? So,
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epistemology is really um philosophy’s attempt to resolve this crisis in faith.
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Remember before we discussed Kant
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and Kant proposed the idea of
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active subjectivity. Active subjectivity is the
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idea that we are not just passive uh consumers of information. We actively
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participate in reality. We imagine reality in a way that allows us to understand
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it. Um what Kant tells us is we imagine space and time onto
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reality which creates a world of appearance for us to understand. The problem with Kant
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is what is reality and Kant doesn’t know. In fact, he tells us it is
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impossible to truly understand reality. And this creates a problem because if
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that’s the case, then how do we know if reality exists or not? It’s entirely
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possible that we are in a computer simulation, right?
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So, so Hegel comes along and resolves this issue by introducing the idea of the
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gist. Okay, the gist, the spirit, the mind. He argues that this is the
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manifestation of God that is the underlying basis of all reality. And from this reality comes the
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material world. What h what will then happen is that
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markx will come along and he will argue that guys is really
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history. Hegel believes that the gist is in a process of rec reconciling itself
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with the world. It’s becoming the world. It’s bringing us along with it so that one day everyone will achieve full
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enlightenment. Markx inverts Hegel and puts the
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material world before the world of ideas and he argues that history it is a
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movement of class struggle and the end of history is when
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all class struggle ceases and we all become equal in a workers’s
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paradise. Why? Because as capitalism becomes worse and worse, as the politer
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increase in number but are exploited in greater uh but but are
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oppressed by the capitalists, eventually the politer, you and me will develop
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class consciousness and we will unite. We will overthrow the capitalist class through collective action.
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Okay. So this is Markx. Now today we
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will study Freud because what will happen is Freud will come along and he
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will present a completely different conception of the movement of history
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and of the individual. He argues that the individual is really
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just unconscious forces embedded within the
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brain. Okay. So these three forces are the superego, the
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ego and the id. The ego is who we think we are. The super ego are these social
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forces that act upon us. And the id are these hidden sexual urges. And what he
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will argue is actually these hidden sexual urges are the true foundations of
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who we are as well as of civilization. And he names two of them. Okay. The
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first is what is called the
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edypo the edypole complex.
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And the second is electro
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complex. So remember that Edypuz is a character from Greek
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mythology, a king who killed his father and married his mother. Electra is also
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a character from uh Greek mythology. Um a woman who wanted to kill um her um
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mother and marry his father. Okay. Uh, Electra is from the Ishelis play the
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Aristia. Um, Freud was remarkably well read in Greek mythology as well as world
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literature. So he argues these are the two fundamental basis of who we are. If
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you’re a man, you are the edible complex. If you have if you’re a woman, you are the you have the electro
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complex. Okay. Now um this is all strange
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because Kant makes sense. Hegel makes sense. Markx makes sense. They all seem
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to flow from each other. And then you have Freud. Okay. So the question then is
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where did he get this idea? Where where’s this from? How did
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he develop this idea? All right. So, so, so we’ll look at this question in great detail today. All right. So, at so um
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everyone sort of knew that Freud’s theory of unconscious is
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problematic. Um, and he had a very famous student, his best student, his hair parent named Carl Young.
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And Carl Young really saw Freud as a father and he worshiped Freud and he
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wanted to improve on Freud’s theory of the unconscious and over time what Carl
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Young will do is he will systemize this idea. Okay. So for Carl
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Young we have the ego and the
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ego is made up of two forces. the conscious
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force and the subconscious. The subconscious is also
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divided into the personal as well as the
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collective. Sorry, uh it’s not subconscious, it’s unconscious. Okay, unconscious. So the personal conscious
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are just our our memories or experiences. The collective
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unconscious is the collection of all society’s memories and
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experiences. Um, and they are captured and expressed whenever we engage in
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society, when we eat the food, when we talk to people, when we watch movies, when we read books. Okay, the collective
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unconscious is embedded through society. You breathe it like you would breathe
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air. Okay. So, um K uh sorry, Yun also says
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that we have the enemist and the enema. In other words, we sorry, in
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other words, we are made up of two opposing forces, the male and the female. There’s
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a duality to us. Um
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so when when we meet people the ego projects a
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persona. Okay the persona is just basically our best self in a certain social context. So so in school you’re a
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student and you try to be the best student. At home you’re a daughter. Um
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at McDonald’s you’re a friend. Okay. So so you are different personas in different social contexts.
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Now we try to protect our best self but we are made up of a lot of bad
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memories, bad thoughts. So the ego suppresses uh the worst aspects of us in a shadow
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form. Okay. So the shadow is really the alter ego of the ego and this Y argues
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is what is called the self. All
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right. And what he tells us is life is a
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constant process of self-discovery. If you truly want to master yourself, you must discover who you are. And that will
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take a lifetime of um self-exloration guided by a psychotherapist. All right?
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And this sounds much more logical, right? and it’s become really the
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standard model for modern day psychology. Now, you would think that Freud would be happy that Coyong came up
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with this new idea on how to improve his theory, but Freud
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um was infuriated that Yung would question his
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theory. In fact, Freud was notorious for being a control freak. He re he executed
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Yun, refused to have any anything to do with him. In fact, everyone in the community around Freud
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um would now distance distance themselves from Cole Young and there would be no reconciliation between the
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two ever. And that’s why and that’s why Co had to had to go and develop this this theory. Okay. So,
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um and it’s strange because all Cole Young is trying to do is improve Freud.
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So, that le that gives us the second question. What why was Freud so afraid
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of criticism? Why why was he so secretive? All right. And then the third
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question that we will look at today is why did this idea become so popular?
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In fact, the ideas of Freud and Cole Yun will become the basis of a major
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cultural movement called modernism.
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And modernism is the cultural movement that we still live in today. Now there
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are many different definitions of modernism but for us the easiest definition
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is cult of the self.
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We live in a world in a society in a culture that’s obsessed
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with ourselves with self-improvement with self-empowerment. All right. So
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um we will look at where this came from. Okay. So the three questions we’re looking at today is first of all where
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did Freud get this idea for the edible complex? Second is why was Freud so
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secretive? The third question is what explains Freud’s popularity? Why was he
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why was he so influential and why was his influence able to spread so quickly? And what I will show you today
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is Freud became so influential and so famous not because his
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psychoanalyst system was designed to help his
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patients. Ultimately, his system was designed to pro protect the interests of
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powerful interests, powerful men. Okay, that’s my argument to you uh
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today. Okay. So, having made the general argument, what I want to do now is look at the evidence to support the argument.
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Okay. So um again this is a chart that summarizes the different perspectives of
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these four major thinkers Kant Hegel Marx and Freud. Okay so to summarize the
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main ideas Freud believes that our sexual urges is what underpins our identity as well as civilization. It’s
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because we cannot control our sexual urges that gives rise to religion which helps us um cope with our guilt. Okay.
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Um he also believes that truth lies and our suppressed memories and in his framework God has
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abandoned us. There’s really no God in his system. We are left to fend for
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ourselves. We are left to deal with the trauma being alone. All right. So um
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let’s put Freud in his historical context. So Freud lived and worked um at
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the end of the 19th century primarily in Vienna and at this time Europe was going
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through fundamental, social, cultural, economic, political change. Um we were
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transitioning from the preodern era to the modern era. Before we lived primarily in towns and villages where we
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dealt with each other emotionally and we had a purpose in our
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community but when we moved to the cities um it is money and the clock that
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regulates our life and it’s still true today. Right? So um when you come to
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school um what controls your behavior it’s the
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it’s it’s your grades as well as the clock right if you are late for class if
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you’re not if you’re absent then you are then your grades get deducted right so it’s the same concept as we have today
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all right um now because of these social
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changes in two new fields sociology and psychology are developed in order to try
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to um understand what these changes mean for us as humans. So in the field of
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sociology there are three major thinkers pioneers of this time Max Weber, Eml
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Durkham and this man George Siml and George Siml wrote a wonderful
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essay called the metropolis and mental life in which he describes what the
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impact of moving to the city has on people. Okay, so we’ll just read a
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couple sentences. Instead of reacting emotionally, the metropolitan type
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reacts primarily in a rational manner, thus creating a mental predominance
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through the intensification of consciousness which in turn is caused by it. Thus, the reaction of the
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metropolitan person to those events is moved to a sphere of mental activity which is least sensitive and which is
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furthest removed from the depths of the personality. Okay, so let’s use a metaphor. Let’s think about food. When
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you’re in the village, you grow your own food and then you make the food, you eat it, and that’s it. Okay? You know
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exactly where the food comes from. You know how it’s made and you’re not really curious about the food. But the one
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wonderful thing about the city is you get um exposed to all different types of cuisine, all different types of flavors,
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and that excites your imagination. You’re much more curious about it, right? You’re you want to know where
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this food is is made. The problem though of course is this is all an abstraction.
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You have absolutely no idea where the food comes from. You have absolutely no idea how where the food is made and quite honestly you don’t even know the
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food is healthy for you or not. Okay. So, so um the city life is a higher
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abstraction and of course today we have the internet which is even a higher abstraction. Okay. So you go from the
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village to the city now to the internet. Um, of course, this creates a lot of
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problems for people because this transition causes psychological issues and the three major psychological issues
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are enemy. Okay? Um, and what this means is before the village, you know exactly
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what to do. Um, but you you move to a city there are different rules and it confuses you. For example, in the
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village, if someone punches you, you punch back and then afterwards you become friends. In a city, if someone
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punches you and you punch back, you both go to jail. So, it’s confusing for people. Okay. Uh, alienation means that
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you have actually no freedom in the city. You work from 9 to5, you get up, you get up at 6:00 in the morning, get
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on at 7:00, then get to work at 9:00. Then you get up for work at 5 and get
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home at 10:00. Okay? So, everyday is the same reg same regulated life. And it’s
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and it’s um and you lack freedom. Okay? Okay, that that causes alienation. The last idea is disenchantment where you
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feel as though you are just a machine and you have lost human agency. Okay, so this creates lots of psychological
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issues and that’s why at this time psych psychology is becoming much more popular. Um this is Simon Freud and um
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he was a very ambitious uh medical student who became a
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psychologist and he start to see patients and these patients were often
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young women who were historical historical is not a word we use anymore
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but back then it just meant that they couldn’t control their emotions. Um, they were prone to outbursts, crying.
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When they saw a man, when they were touched by a man, they screamed, they cried. They couldn’t form healthy
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relationships. Okay? And so Freud was tasked with figuring out why this was
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happening and trying to help these women. And he spent a lot of time with
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these women. And he did something pretty novel at the time which is he basic he just won their trust and asked them
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directly why are you like this and the woman um after many sessions after
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becoming friends with Freud they start to confide in Freud and they told him the truth which is I’m hysterical I’m
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afraid of men touching me because when I was
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young my father abused me and Freud at first was shocked. I
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think everyone would be shocked. But over time he would hear this story from so
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many different patients with the same symptoms that he concluded that they must be telling him the truth. And he
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wrote a very famous paper in 1896 called the ideology of hysteria. Ignies means
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origins. Okay. And in it he says, “My previously communicated assumption that
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trauma, specifically sexual trauma, cannot be stressed enough as a pathic agent, was confirmed a new. Even
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children of respected, high-minded parental families fall victim to real
30:37
rape much more frequently than one had dared to suspect. Either the parents
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themselves seek substitution for their lack of satisfaction in this pathological manner or else trusted
30:48
person such as relatives um abuse the ignorance and innocence of
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children. Okay. So he’s arguing that abuse is much more common than we are
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led to believe. Even those that we think are pillars of society engage in the
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sort of abuse. So what he’s doing is that he’s becoming an advocate for
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advocate for these women. He’s telling the world they’re not crazy. They’re not being hysterical. They were traumatized
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and that’s why they’re behaving like this. If you got hit by a car, your leg wouldn’t um you wouldn’t
31:26
be able to walk. Well, these women are the same way. They were traumatized physically when they were young and that’s why they are behaving like this.
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That’s why they have problems forming these emotional bonds of others.
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Um the symptoms of hysteria are determined by certain experiences of the patients which have operated in a
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traumatic fashion and which are being reproduced in a psychological life in the form of pneummetic symbols. Okay. So
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what he’s saying is this is not made up in the mind. This happened physically and then it gets represented in the
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mind. Um so that’s Freud arguing for
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um his patients. Now let me introduce you to a man named Jeffrey Mason and he
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wrote a book called the assault on truth. His story is this. He went to Harvard and he became very interested in
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psychoanalysis and he studied began to study it and he became friends with Anna Freud who is Simon Freud’s daughter.
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Anna Freud um thought very highly of him and um she trusted him with the letters
32:34
of Sigman Freud and before this was this was not open to the public and no one knew about these letters but Jeffrey
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Mason spent years going over the letters and what he discovered shocked him. The
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early Freud and the later Freud are two different people. They have two different theories about trauma and
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abuse. Okay. And in his book, he presents the evidence which are Freud’s
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letters to friends. All right. So, let’s just read a couple. This is early Freud.
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I therefore put forward thesis that at the bottom of every case of hysteria, there are one or more occurrences of
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premature experience, occurrences which belong to the earliest years of childhood. Okay.
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There are a whole number of other things that vouch for the reality of infatile sexual scenes. In the first place,
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there’s a uniformity which exhibit in certain details. So, what he’s saying is
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um I know that people don’t believe me, but the evidence is clear. I’ve talked
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to different people. They don’t know each other. They’re telling the same story. They’re bringing the same details. So, either there’s this giant
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conspiracy or they’re telling the truth.
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It is less easy to refute the idea that the doctor forces reminiscences of this sort on the patient, that he influences
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him by suggesting to imagine and reproduce them. Nevertheless, it appears to me equally untenable. I’ve never yet
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succeeded in forcing on a patient a scene I was expecting to find in such a way that he seemed to be living through
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it with all the appropriate feelings. Perhaps others may be more successful in this. When you read Freud, you see him
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as a very clear, as a very nuanced, as a very balanced thinker. Okay? He accepts
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there are different possibilities. It’s possible that he himself is suggesting false memories to his
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patients. And he and he and he says this this is possible, but I have failed to
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achieve this goal. And there are others who may be better at this than I, but I
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haven’t been able to do it. Okay. So based on this evidence um he argues that
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these patients must be telling truth. Okay. This is the early
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Freud. Um this is Sandor for the longest time they were colleagues. They were
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best friends. They were both advocates for patients and then um they had a falling
35:10
out. Okay. they started to um they they basically refused to talk
35:17
to each other anymore. Okay. And the reason why is Senator Frenzy continue to
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advocate for um patient rights whereas Simon Freud
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completely changed his attitude. All right. So let’s look at the new Freud. Since child masturbation is such a
35:36
general occurrence and is at the same time so poorly remembered, it must have an equivalent in psychic life and in
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fact it is found in the fantasy encountered in most female patients. Namely that the father seduced her in
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childhood. This is a later reworking which is designed to cover up the recolleation of infatile sexual activity
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represents an excuse and thereof. The grin of truth contained
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in this fantasy lies in the fact that the father by way of his innocent caresses in earlier childhood has
36:07
actually awakened the little girl’s sexuality. It is these same affectionate fathers that are the ones who then
36:13
endeavor to break the child of the habit of masturbation. Okay. So what Freud is
36:19
trying to say is young girls from a very early age they are sexual animals. They
36:25
have these urges and they have this longing for the father. And it’s compounded by the fact that the father
36:31
in his innocence hugs and caresses his little girl. It’s made worse when the
36:36
father notices that the girl is masturbating and tries to stop her. And this creates a sense of both resentment,
36:44
hatred, and more longing. Okay. So now what Freud is saying
36:49
is it’s not the father. The father did nothing. He’s innocent. The girl is the
36:55
one who who who because of these sexual urges has all these sexual fantasies
37:02
that she is no longer able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. All
37:10
right. So um this is from from the essay fragments of analysis of hysteria. The
37:16
love hungry little girl, unhappy at having to share her parents’ affection with her brothers and sisters, realizes
37:22
that all that tenderness comes flowing back when her parents are made anxious by her illness. The little the girl now
37:29
knows a way of calling forth her parents’ love. So now he’s explaining why hysteria is so common in society.
37:35
And the answer is very simple. Women are desperate for attention. It’s that
37:40
simple. They’re fine. They have no issues. They just want attention. And that’s why they are hysterical, okay?
37:49
Because they know that illness attracts attention from caregiving
37:55
uh males. Um this is this is Simon Freud’s
38:01
book, Civilization in Its Discontents. And in it, he expresses his contempt for
38:07
women in society. All right, let’s read it. Furthermore, women should soon come into opposition to civilization and
38:14
display their retarding and restraining influence. Those very women who in the beginning laid the foundations of
38:20
civilization for the claims of their love. Women represent the interests of the family and of sexual life. The work
38:27
of civilization has become increasingly the business of men. It confronts them them with ever more difficult tasks and
38:34
compels them to carry out instinctual sublimations of which women are little
38:39
capable. All right. So Freud’s saying this, we must thank women because without women there being no
38:44
civilization. They give birth. They raise families. But men are smarter than women. And so men are tasked with the
38:52
responsibility of building civilization, of creating science, of creating literature, of creating philosophy, of
38:58
politics, of administration. Okay. And but what all women want is
39:05
attention to be doted on. And that’s why women hate civilization. First of all, because they’re not smart and they can’t
39:11
really uh contribute to civilization, but also because it takes uh men away
39:17
from from them. Okay. So now the question then is okay. This is like
39:24
really strange because the four that we encountered earlier was
39:30
a scientist. Um, very clear, very nuanced,
39:36
very subtle in his thinking. This Freud, he’s like a mythmaker. He’s
39:44
almost like a priest. Okay. So, so what explains the trans transition? Okay.
39:50
Well, there’s there’s a very simple explanation, right? Um the simple explanation which is simple explanation is
39:58
um he may be treating his patients who are a young woman but who’s paying the
40:04
bills? The father, right? It’s a father who’s paying Freud. So um if Freud went
40:12
to the father and said, “Oh, I talked to your daughter. It’s your fault that she’s like this.” Well, they wouldn’t be
40:17
very happy. Okay. So, um, we can understand why at the end of the day,
40:24
Freud decided that he needed to change his story if he wanted to maintain his
40:29
clientele. Um, so the question then is, okay, is there evidence to suggest that
40:37
sexual trauma and abuse was common in Vienna at this time in history, the late
40:43
19th century? And the answer is yes. There is some piece of evidence, okay? not complete. Okay. But there’s some
40:49
piece of evidence suggests this was actually a thing in Vienna in the late
40:55
19th century. So um this is so Vienna is part of the AustriaHungary Empire and there are lots of secret societies and
41:00
religious cults at this time. Okay. One of them is called Frankenism and
41:06
Frankenism uh um rejected Jewish norms and he and
41:13
believe they were obligated to transgress moral boundaries. Okay, remember the crisis of faith, right? How
41:19
do you demonstrate um your faith in God? How do you know God loves you? How do you know you’re faithful? Well, you
41:25
break taboos. And they were breaking a lot of taboos. The fragrance engaged in sexually promiscuous rights such as the
41:31
infamous 1756 incident where they were allegedly caught dancing around a half naked woman. Um at its height,
41:38
fragmentism claimed perhaps 50,000 followers. That’s a lot. 50,000 followers is a lot. And a lot of them
41:43
were powerful people. um primarily Jews living in the Polish Lutheran Commonwealth as well as central and
41:49
eastern Europe. Later Francis were encouraged to convert in in mass to Catholicism. Okay. And um so who are
41:59
these people? Well, they are followers of a man named Sibetai Zevi who lived in
42:04
19th century who who was a um Jewish rabbi who lived in 19th century Ottoman
42:10
Empire. And for many he was extremely charismatic and he was basically their messiah. Okay, he was the Jewish Messiah
42:18
and he preached a religion of transgression because transgression meant courage. It meant empowerment
42:26
u it meant true faith and he had a lot of followers and that’s why the sultan
42:31
called him and then said okay I’ll give you a choice you can either continue doing what you do and I’ll kill you or
42:38
you convert to Islam. so he can murder Islam. But when he did so, he told his
42:44
followers, I did so because God doesn’t care about what you do. God cares about
42:51
what’s in your heart. As long as you’re true to God, what you do in life does not matter. Okay? And the religion he
42:58
started is still around uh today. Okay? And um this is from
43:07
Wikipedia. Okay? All this is from Wik Wikipedia and you can look look you can
43:12
look at it online to make sure that I’m just making making this up. All right. So as part of this movement
43:22
um I mean you can read this right? All right. Um sexual abuse was actually
43:28
pretty common. So we have evidence suggests that yes um these women were probably
43:35
telling the truth and Freud knew knew so. But Freud ultimately had to change his story in order to prot protect his
43:41
livelihood. Okay. But there’s also another reason why Freud had to change his story. Okay. And this it has to do
43:47
with a man named Ignis Simise. Ignis Simise lived in 1840s uh
43:53
Vienna. He was and he he was a doctor who worked at uh Vienna General Hospital
43:59
and he was in charge of two maternity clinics, places where women gave birth.
44:05
um same hospital, same staff, but the maternity but the mortality rate at the
44:10
second clinic was much higher than the first clinic. Women would uh could could
44:16
die giving birth because of fever. So 10% of of women were dying in the second clinic and only about 3% were dying in
44:23
the first clinic. So in wise he was appalled by by this and so he launched
44:31
an investigation as to what was happening and he spent seven months a long long time trying to figure out what
44:38
happened what was happening and he looked at all different possibilities including weather including um treatment
44:45
including personnel everything okay and then he had a radical breakthrough he had an insight which is this in a second
44:52
clinic it was a teaching hospital. So doctors would in the morning work work
44:57
with cadaavvers, okay? They would show students how to how to dissect dissect cadaavvers and then in the afternoon they’d go and deliver babies. And
45:05
similar he didn’t know why because at this time germs were not a thing. People didn’t know know about the existence of
45:12
germs. Um he didn’t know why but he he theorized that there could be connection. So he created a protocol. He
45:19
basically had everyone wash their hands uh using a um a formula of um
45:26
water, chlorine, and lime. And we still use it today. Exactly the same formula
45:31
today. And so he tried this protocol and it was a miracle because because after people start to wash their hands, no one
45:38
died in childirth anymore. And similar wise being a rigorous scientist he
45:43
collected all this data conducted a lot of experiments to prove this had to be true that washing your hands could save
45:48
lives. And then we presented his findings to the staff the doctors of
45:53
Vienna General Hospital believing that they would um they would praise him and
45:58
then promote this all throughout Europe in order to save as many lives as possible. Instead the doctors told him
46:05
they had to um they had to keep this quiet. um they’ll promote similice uh
46:11
they respect him and he did amazing work but if word came out that uh this was
46:17
true then people would know that they were responsible for the deaths of these women before and their reputation would
46:23
be in tatters um and then sim of course responded by yes I understand that but
46:28
if we don’t publish our findings if we don’t let the world know know about this more women are going to die in child
46:35
birth and they fought for a long time, years and years and then eventually similar wise he was black uh
46:43
blacklisted. He would he would not he was not allowed to work work ever in hospital again and then ultimately he
46:48
was confined to an incident asylum where he was killed by the guards and he let
46:54
and he died leaving a young family and so that’s what happens to you when you defy powerful people in Vienna uh in the
47:02
19th century and Freud didn’t want the same fate okay and he al he also had a young family um so this story is
47:09
horrible but if if you don’t believe me you can go on Wikipedia Okay. Um he was
47:15
institutionized in in the same asylum um by his colleagues and in asylum he
47:21
was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later. All right. So this is a fate
47:28
that will happen to you in Vienna if you defy powerful people. So So now we have
47:34
an explanation for why Freud made the transition, why he changed his story.
47:40
But now there’s another problem which is how does Freud convince his patients to go along
47:47
right before he told his patients I believe you um and they trusted him and
47:53
now he’s changing his story. So how can he convince them that they in fact do
48:00
suffer from sexual fantasies and like these this experience
48:05
of sex sexual abuse it’s all just made up in the head and that’s a very hard job to do. So the solution
48:13
is the interpretation of dreams. All right. So Freud pioneered a new way of
48:20
hypnotizing um his patients. So together they would analyze
48:27
their dreams, right? Because if you if you talk about their memories in their past, they’re going to fight back and
48:32
says, “I remember very clearly.” you talk about your dreams that allows you to
48:38
um suggest subtly new ideas and new memories to
48:44
basically implant uh new memories and basically gaslight that person.
48:50
Okay, does that make sense? All right, so the interpretation of dreams. So um
48:56
that is the story of Freud. Okay, but this leaves a question is why
49:04
did this spread throughout the world? All right, and that’s something that we will look at in part
49:11
three. So a lot of the influence of Freud has to do with Carl Young who will
49:16
take his ideas of the unconscious and systemize it for popular um consumption.
49:25
Okay. Um so we already discussed his framework where we are all dualities. Okay, we have an ego but we also have a
49:31
shadow. We have a conscious but also a unconscious, a personal as well as
49:37
collective, an animous and an animma. Um yung popularized ideas of
49:43
personality types, right? Introvert um extrovert which is what we still use
49:48
today. All right. Um the main influence is in
49:54
modernism a transformative art movement beginning around the um early 20th
50:01
century. All right. So arguably the first great
50:07
modern artist is James Joyce who in 1922 published
50:13
Ulyses. Um James Joyce was Irish. He was an Irish expatriate and he actually
50:20
studied Dante in university. So um he wrote Ulyses um as a way to imitate
50:28
almost surpass Dante. And of course Ulisses refers to
50:33
Homer’s Odyssey. Now um we’re going to read a passage from Ulyses to understand
50:42
um the P’s writing. Okay. In evil modality of the visible at least that if
50:48
no more thought through my eyes signatures of all things I’m here to read sea spawn and sea rack the nearing
50:56
tide that rusty boot star green blue silver rust colored signs limits of the
51:03
dian fun but he adds in bodies. Okay. Um what does this mean? I have no
51:09
idea. All right. I I have no idea. Um I can explain to you Dante. I can explain to you Homer and Shakespeare, but I
51:16
struggle with James Joyce. And there are two reasons why. Okay, the first reason is he was um a singer. So you have to
51:26
read what he writes as though it’s music. Okay, it’s meant to be read read out loud. So it’s musical and that’s
51:32
really the power of his writing. He’s more focusing on the style rather than the substance. Okay, that’s the first
51:39
thing. Second thing is that he was extremely well read and everything that
51:45
he writes in every sentence there are multiple illusions and references to other books. Okay? So you must have read
51:53
what he read. You must have experienced what he experienced in order to understand him. And there are those who
52:00
argue that Ulisses is the greatest book in the world. In fact, if you go online, you just Google the best book ever
52:06
written in human history, James Choice is up there. Okay. Uh, Ulissiz is either number one or number two on these list
52:12
of 50 best books in human history. Um,
52:18
um, and there is there are many who tell me, “Yeah, James Joyce is hard, but if you spend the time to go over what he’s
52:27
writing and connect the references, you will have a transformative intellectual
52:32
experience.” Okay? It’s almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Um, and that’s
52:38
all true, okay? But think about what they’re saying. They’re saying what they’re really saying is that James
52:44
Joyce believes that he is God. He has the mind of God. And if you spend the
52:51
time to understand what he writes, and it might take you years, decades, okay, you will access the mind of God. That’s
52:57
very different from Dante which is trying to use poetry to bring people
53:04
into the mind of God which is the truth of the world. Okay. Donis is a lot more accessible than James Joyce. So look
53:13
let’s look at the differences. Uh modern literature as represented by Ulyses it is elitist. It’s self self-reerential.
53:21
Okay, it just has a lot of illusions and references, but you don’t you actually don’t know what the meaning is like what
53:26
is the bigger story here and it’s usually something called stream of consciousness writing which is it’s
53:32
trying to capture the mind as it thinks and works. Okay, that’s different from a
53:38
from Homer who was who was very democratic. He was trying to bring beauty and truth to the people through
53:46
epic poetry. Okay. So starting with modern literature, we have this abrupt
53:51
change in the nature of literature. Before it was about empowering people to seek the truth for themselves.
53:59
Now modern literature, it’s really just this very elite club of very arrogant,
54:06
hotty people. Okay. Um James Joyce was good friends Virginia
54:12
Wolf. In fact, Virginia Wolf actually published um James Joyce in 1927. Wolf published a book called To
54:20
the Lighthouse and it’s probably her most famous work and um in it she’s also
54:25
trying to respond to Joyce to the Lighthouse. It’s very much based on
54:30
Homer’s Odyssey and um it’s it’s a very
54:35
it’s extremely well written. Okay, let’s let’s just look at what she writes.
54:41
There were the eternal problems, suffering, death, the poor. There was always a woman dying of cancer even
54:46
here. And yet she had said to all these children, “You shall go through with it.” To a people she had said
54:52
relentlessly to that and the bill for the greenhouse would be 50 pounds. Okay. So what she’s what she’s doing is she’s reading a book and she’s thinking about
54:58
the issues raised by book. But she’s also thinking about life like, “Oh, I I have to go and do something.” Okay. And that’s really how our minds work. So
55:04
this captures really well stream of conscious thinking and she’s heavily influenced by Freud, right? She’s trying
55:11
to go into the unconscious and trying to figure out how the conscious unconscious works. The lighthouse is really about
55:16
memory, about perception, about remembering. All right. Um, but again,
55:23
it’s extremely self-indulgent and it’s inwardlooking and it’s very and again it’s a radical
55:28
departure from traditional literature. So, let’s compare um modern literature with Dossi. Mr.
55:36
Before we discuss Dossi for DSvski the heart it’s a deep
55:42
impenetrable ocean and our psychology responds to external events. We live in
55:47
the world and respond to the world. We must surrender ourselves to others to seek salvation and redemption. We cannot
55:53
rely our on ourselves to forgive ourselves to love ourselves. We must rely on others. We are we are in a
55:59
community of people. Okay. So these are the truths of doski. When we get to modern literature, self-discovery will
56:06
allow for selfmastery. Our psych psychology responds to suppressed memories. We can be our own salvation
56:12
and redemption. It’s too optimistic. Uh it’s too positive. Okay?
56:18
It’s saying that hey, if you’re poor, um don’t worry about it. As long as you
56:25
think happy thoughts, you’ll be good. Okay? this this idea of positive psychology right that we have today.
56:32
Um Cole Young and Fred also had a major influence on Pablo Picasso and you can
56:39
see it from his painting um head of a woman. Okay. Now what you will notice is
56:45
it’s it’s it’s a cubis portrait of a woman but if you look further it’s
56:51
actually two people as well. Okay. And so what this is doing is it’s visually
56:57
representing the theory of the self as presented by Yung. Okay. So so do do you see the
57:05
similarities? Great. Okay. So why is this art spreading
57:12
throughout the world? Well, I mean not to be conspiracy theorists, but let’s look at an article, right? Was modern
57:19
art really a CIA scop? All right. So this article is from JStore which is a
57:26
academic journal very mainstream and this let’s read what it writes in the
57:33
mid- 20th century modern art and design represented the liberalism individualism
57:38
dynamic activity and creative risk risk possible in a free society. Okay. So in
57:43
other words right now uh the capitalist west is at war with
57:49
communism. 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, commis is spreading all around the world, it’s
57:54
very popular among people. It calls for collective action. So, um, the capitalist west, the
58:02
powers that be, they’re spreading Freud, they’re spreading joy, they’re spreading
58:07
wolf, they’re spreading public, they’re spreading all this art, this modernist art in order to create a cult of self.
58:15
Because if you believe in the cult of the self, if you believe that you are the source of everything, then you don’t
58:20
you’re not capable of collective action. Okay, so in many ways this this is response to the problem posed by
58:27
communism. And this will be um obviously uh most obvious during the cold war.
58:32
Okay, does that make sense? All right. So why would that be
58:38
bad? Why would the cold itself be bad? Well, this is Macau Buchanan and he
58:44
explains it very well in his writings. Okay, so let’s read really quickly what he
58:49
wrote. Having human in man and freedom above all is a product of a social
58:55
collective labor. To be free and absolute isolation is an absurdity invented by theologians, metaphysicians
59:01
who have replaced the society of humans by that of God, their phantom. to say that each person feels free in the
59:07
presence of God that is the presence of absolute emptiness nothingness. Freedom in isolation then
59:14
is a freedom of nothingness or indeed the nothingness of freedom slavery. God
59:19
the figment of God has been historically the moral source or rather the immoral source of all slaveries. So what he’s
59:25
saying is the radical turning point in human history is the invention of Christianity because it allows it gives
59:32
us the idea of individualism. And we think that’s a good thing because we we’re taught that
59:37
individuality individ individualism means free choice. It means freedom. What he’s saying is that’s that’s an
59:44
absurdity. We only have freedom from our community. We only have freedom if
59:50
others are free around us. If we are free but no one else is free then we are
59:56
slaves as well. So because individuality prevents us from
1:00:03
working with others from loving others then that makes us slaves to
1:00:10
ourselves and that allows for the powers that be in society to better control us.
1:00:16
Okay. And so what he’s saying is Christianity is a slave religion. All right. Right? It was designed to make us
1:00:22
all into slaves. And this will and he and Buchanan lived in 19th
1:00:28
century. But if he read Freud, then he would also argue that the
1:00:36
cult of psychoanalysis, it’s really about entrapping yourself in your own
1:00:44
emotions. As for us, we want neither phantoms nor nothingness, but living human reality. And we recognize that man
1:00:50
can feel free be free and therefore can achieve freedom. In order to be free I need to see myself surrounded by men by
1:00:57
free men and be recognized as such by them. I am free only when my individuality reflected in the mirror of
1:01:03
the equally free consciousness of every individual around me comes back to me strengthened by everyone’s recognition.
1:01:09
Okay. So what he’s saying is this. If you want to be happy, if you want to be free, care about others, be kind to
1:01:16
others, work with other people, sacrifice your own self-interest for the
1:01:22
self-interest, for for the for the greater good. Okay, that is what that will that is that is what will make you
1:01:28
really happy. And that’s generally true because think about this, okay? If you’re by yourself, will you be happy?
1:01:35
Probably not. But if you have a family, you have kids, you don’t have any freedom, but you’re a happier person in
1:01:41
many in in many many ways. You’re a more free person because you have better control of your emotions. You have more
1:01:47
purpose in life. All right. So,
1:01:52
um let’s bring this to the present day. Social media. What social media is? It
1:01:57
is the democratization of the cult of itself. Before only the wealthy could
1:02:03
enjoy the cult, right? only the wealthy could take the time to self-indulge. But
1:02:09
now with social media, everyone can participate in the cult of self and that has led to a global
1:02:17
um epidemic of depression. Okay. So look look at year 2015. You see this huge
1:02:24
spike in depressive symptoms because 2015 is the year when we had access to
1:02:30
smartphones, right? So now young people feel they can’t do anything right. Life
1:02:35
is not useful and I do not enjoy life. Okay. This huge spike which has led to a huge spike in suicide. All right. And
1:02:44
this is happening throughout the world not only in North America and Europe but also in Latin America and East Asia as
1:02:51
well. So the color itself which originated in Europe has now conquered
1:02:56
the world through technology. All right. So,
1:03:04
um that’s it. All right. So, the answer to the three questions. The first
1:03:09
question is where did Freud get his idea? Second question, uh why did Freud
1:03:15
break of Yun? The third question, why is Freud’s idea so popular today? Okay.
1:03:22
Well, it’s all to serve the interests of the powerful and that’s the world we
1:03:27
live in today. And the only solution moving forward is if we rediscovered our humanity. We if we are able to find the
1:03:35
courage to um care about others and put the interests of others before our own
1:03:41
interests, we ourselves must choose to kill the cult of the self. Okay. All
1:03:47
right. So, uh next class we will do um
1:03:52
nationalism, right?
All