Theatre/Theater

[Lycidas at worldnet.att.net]

Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2 Mar 2000 Lycidas at worldnet.att.net wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Paul Mackin wrote:
> > >
> > > Freud's favorite English poet was Milton.
> >
> > I always though Freud's favorite poet was Sophocles.
> 
> Only his favorite ENGLISH poet. Loved Sophocles like he loved his mother.
> 
> I was only alluding to how Freud in his final writings warned
> against difficulties inherent in trying to analyze society or a particular
> culture such as the German pre-war culture--which P addresses himself
> to--as far as rooting out societal neuroses or pathologies is concerned.
> For Freud aggression was instinctual and individual. F didn't say
> positively don't draw analogies between societal and individual
> development--just said it would be difficult and that they
> would be mere analogies.  Post Freudians sometimes felt otherwise.
> It does seem to me and I've seen reference to it somewhere that the
> aggression instinct is analogous also to Original Sin. Or better perhaps,
> that Original Sin is an analogy for the the aggression instinct  with the
> proviso that the aggression instinct is no felix culpa. (no redemption)
> 
>     


Yes, I understand now, Aggression, Freud's "Original
self­subsisting instinctual disposition in man . . . the
greatest impediment to civilization." 

Right it is the post-Freudians I think, that Pynchon is more
indebted to.  


Another essay of interest is Freud's "Thoughts for the Time
on War and Death (1915)

The disillusionment of the war

another guy I like on this is Earnest Becker, Becker's 'The
Denial of Death' (1974 Pulitzer) draws on Otto Rank and
Freud.