After May '68 Paris Deleuze begins a collaboration with the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, who was active as political militant of the extreme left. So after writing essays which resumed his university courses (dedicated to the study of empiricism, Spinoza and especially the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche), Deleuze suddenly acquires notoriety in the extra-academic sectors with two works of great complexity : the Anti- Oedipus (1972) and its sequel A Thousand Plateaus (1980), both subtitled “Capitalism and Schizophrenia”. The main critical target of Anti- Oedipus is psychoanalysis, accused to see desire only within the family relationships (the Oedipus complex), and not as something genetically revolutionary and creator of new orders, as the two believed. This Anti-Oedipal theory has literary implications as well: psychoanalytic interpretations, for example, had been suggested over the years for Kafka’s works, seeing the authority, the Law, the bureaucracy as figures of the father – this is what Deleuze is trying to take down with his book “Kafka: toward a minor literature”. In other words, the accusation to psychoanalysts is to have weakened the concept of the unconscious, thus ending up with enslaving psychoanalysis to the power of the State, the Church and the Market. Delueze philosophical production is strictly linked to his literary critics, a link which is plainly clear in his “What is philosophy?”. In this text, the authors clarify what is common and what is different between the so called three disciplines of knowledge: philosophy, art (in general) and science. What these disciplines have in common is a certain relationship towards chaos. Each of these different modes of knowledge, according to Deleuze and ... ... middle of paper ... ... use of “malleable” verbs (with multiple meanings), the succession of adverbs and of terms that connote pain. - The interaction between Czech (the original, rural but forgotten language), Yiddish (feared and disdained) and German (the language of towns, bureaucracy and commerce). Even when it is unique, a language remains a mixture of different languages, that crash one with the other. Deleuze’s intention to avoid any transcendental interpretation in favour of a practical approach to Kafka’s works includes a brief analysis of the historical context , which is the critical situation of the Hapsburg empire, its imminent breakdown, which provoked complex “processes of reterritorialization”, as Deleuze interprets them, such as Einstein theories, Austrian dedacophonist music, the Expressionism in cinema, the birth of psychoanalysis and of Prague school of linguistics.
In the field of philosophy there can be numerous answers to a general question, depending on a particular philosopher's views on the subject. Often times an answer is left undetermined. In the broad sense of the word and also stated in the dictionary philosophy can be described as the pursuit of human knowledge and human values. There are many different people with many different theories of knowledge. Two of these people, also philosophers, in which this paper will go into depth about are Descartes and Plato. Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and Plato's The Republic are the topics that are going to be discussed in this paper.
In “A Hunger”, “The Penal Colony”, and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka succeeded in showing his individuals as obsessed with their profession; however their obsession caused their doom because society asks so much from an individual, only so much can be done. However, regardless of that, these individuals choose their work over themselves, and not even bad health or death can stop them. Because society places immures pressure on Kafka’s work obsessed character, they neglect their well-being and cause their own downfall.
Inspired by Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and his analyses of his own and patients’ psychological behavior, Sigmund Freud developed the Oedipus complex. Freud believed that dreams are suppressed oedipal urges, and that these urges are universal to humankind. Opposition to the theory’s name is common, since many believe that Oedipus Rex has a profounder meaning than Freud asserts. Through the content of the play, Sigmund Freud supports his complex by shining light on Oedipus’s tragic, yet inevitable prophecy.
Of the copious number of topics in the world today, nothing captivated Sigmund Freud’s attention like psychology did. Known as the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud laid the foundations for comprehending the inner workings that determine human behavior (1). Through his involvement with the hypnosis, dream analysis, psychosexual stages, and the unconscious as a whole, Freud began a new revolution that faced its own conflict but eventually brought the harvest of new knowledge and clarity to the concept of the mind.
Raphael’s School of Athens is the first art work to represent the epitome of Greek philosophy in a unique manner. The fundamental conception of The School of Athens is without precedent in the tradition of European art. Before Raphael, artists depicted philosophy allegorically. (Most, 145). School of Athens depicts the whole complex product of Greek thought. Greek philosophy may be divided in three phases: the material, the speculative and the scientific. These three phases are depicted in Raphael's work, the material and the scientific are purely physical and occupy the lower level, whereas the speculative is depicted on the upper platform (Garigues, 409). In this paper we will analyze how the three phases of Greek philosophy are illustrated so skillfully in Raphael’s work The School of Athens.
Wilson, Sarah. "Sigmund Freud and the oedipal complex." The Observer”. Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2009. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/sigmund-freud-oedipal-complex>.
Rene Descartes decision to shatter the molds of traditional thinking is still talked about today. He is regarded as an influential abstract thinker; and some of his main ideas are still talked about by philosophers all over the world. While he wrote the "Meditations", he secluded himself from the outside world for a length of time, basically tore up his conventional thinking; and tried to come to some conclusion as to what was actually true and existing. In order to show that the sciences rest on firm foundations and that these foundations lay in the mind and not the senses, Descartes must begin by bringing into doubt all the beliefs that come to him by the senses. This is done in the first of six different steps that he named "Meditations" because of the state of mind he was in while he was contemplating all these different ideas. His six meditations are "One:Concerning those things that can be called into doubt", "Two:Concerning the Nature of the Human mind: that it is better known than the Body", "Three: Concerning God, that he exists", "Four: Concerning the True and the False", "Five: Concerning the Essence of Material things, and again concerning God, that he exists" and finally "Six: Concerning the Existence of Material things, and the real distinction between Mind and Body". Although all of these meditations are relevant and necessary to understand the complete work as a whole, the focus of this paper will be the first meditation.
The myth of Oedipus is a template that explains a developmental processes that all children undergo. Myths are an important component of our psyches, our media and popular culture of our everyday lives. Psychoanalytic criticism is a structure of literary theory criticism which uses some of the techniques of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of literature. It aims to cure mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind. Now, a Freudian analysis of Sophocles’s Oedipus The King would show that Oedipus truly possessed an incestuous nature. This was revealed not only by Oedipus 's marriage to his own mother, by whom he had children,
Eccentricity provides for an interesting story, it adds to the excitement of the lives of those who are eccentric, and adds to the excitement of those who live around them. The Crying of Lot 49, can be classified as a novel that’s oddities in plot makes for a more interesting story. Although sometimes difficult for a reader to completely understand how and why the characters do what they do, the Crying of Lot 49, exemplifies the ideas of a postmodern piece of literature, and critiques the traditional values and ideas of life. Using the model outlined by Deleuze and Guattari, The Crying of Lot 49 is a paradigmatic example of postmodern literature because throughout the novel, the themes of dismantling hierarchy, magnifying principles of difference, and the process of transforming and becoming are present.
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Beauvoir, Simone de []. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
Throughout the last few weeks we’ve been reading and discussing three largely renowned books (Metamorphosis by Kafka, The Stanger by Albert Camus and The Perfume by Patrick Suskind) that share similarity in themes, and in the character profiles of Gregor Samsa, John Baptiste Grenouille and Meursault. These themes and profiles include; isolation and alienation from humanity as well as society, sociopathic tendencies, distorted reality, feelings of apathy towards life and others, among other.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. "Introduction: Rhizome." In A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. 3-25.
They suggest that Freud’s observational data consisted of a patient’s disorders and the absence of conscious contents which would appear during the psychoanalytic talking-cure. With this fundamental basis Freud formulated a theory which leads to the belief that the repressed unconscious thoughts in essence caused the disorders. (Talvitie & Tiitinen, 2006) Talvitie and Tiitinen modify the historical realm of psychoanalytic terms of repressed contents and the meta-psychology towards the present era using neurophysiological and empirical studies of consciousness, which focus more on the dynamic systems approach and one’s consciousness, memory, attention, and self. (Talvitie & Tiitinen,
By considering such arguments, psychoanalysis can be said to have no ultra fundamental meaning when assessing an author’s work. For former advocate of this analysis, Frederic...