L5: "The Freudian Consciousness"

SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)
 

[Image available under Wikimedia Commons]

"The secret antagonist of the intellect" The misery of the human condition. People alienated. [MARX] Sex becomes important in the Media as motivator. People no longer considered noble creatures. Challenges Enlightenment.

The Freudian Personality. ID. From birth. Aim to gain pleasure and avoid pain. Demands fulfilment. "Spoilt Brat" EGO. Reality and Reason. Rational. The least powerful part of the personality. SUPEREGO. Socialisation. Person punished with guilt. Attempting to live up to impossible standards of perfection. Society as collective.

Psychoanalysis. The exchange of words between patient and doctor. Believed he discovered the 'archaeology' of the mind. Dreams as the 'royal road' to the unconscious. Reveal real problems. The existence of  a "subconscious". Method aims to try and distract/contain the ID.  No real satisfaction unless destroying enemy. 
 
"The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious. What I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied" [FREUD]

HCJ Seminar Paper (20/03/12)

Max Weber (1864 – 1920)

Weber’s political philosophy appeared towards the end of the Enlightenment, a time of Social Radicalism that called for a revolt between the two main classes; the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. British Empiricism was at a standstill and the rise of the German state secured a more conservative way of thinking.

Following on from Karl Marx’s (1818 – 1883) political philosophy, Weber’s beliefs were wholly Kantian. He believed “The essence of politics is struggle" (Kilcullen, 1996, [Online]). He describes how power is obtained through political struggle; therefore there is value in conflict. Kant describes an “internal struggle against wicked desires” (Robinson and Groves, 1998), whereby we perform a duty in order to become virtuous.