God and psychoanalysis

LesEnfantsTerribles · 1 month

In The Future of an Illusion, Freud put forth the classic psychoanalytic argument against religion, being that religion provides a pathological need for people and provides a comforting father figure. He basically dismissed religion as a puerile dependency on imaginary ideas. This is a powerful argument but since then things have gotten much more complicated. Psychoanalysis actually finds itself agreeing with many kinds of religious thought quite frequently. There are many books on psychoanalysis and Buddhism, for instance.

For my purposes, psychoanalysis taught me the same lessons about myself that I was learning from Zen Buddhism (which I eventually abandoned). Zen is very foreign, very old, and very hard to accomodate to a 21st century American lifestyle. Psychoanalysis to me feels more comfortable.

But as the cliche goes, you can only answer those big questions on your own.

stooey · 1 month

This actually happened to me. I took 11 shots of whiskey in a row one time, and can't drink liquor anymore. Then I drank too much wine and get sick every time I drink that. Then a while back I got sick from drinking beer...and now I don't drink at all.

geez_cheese · 1 month

I'll be attending the SUNY Buffalo English masters program in the fall. My options will be very open there, but I have been planning on studying Lacanian theory with the Institute for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture, which is within the English program.

I am currently enamored with Lacanian theory, but I'm certainly open to questioning everything and I don't see myself remaining a 'Lacanian' for the rest of my life (I'm only 22).

With regard to the article, what would really bother me is if Lacan was indeed stacking the deck in his favor, ignoring evidence that ran against his theories, and only hearing what he wanted to hear from his patients. That throws into question the validity and rigor of his framework as a whole, which has greatly influenced the way I see the world and my place in it.

sheldonkreger · 1 month

What school are you talking about? I read a little Spanish btw.

7sshare · 1 month

Listening to this never fails to make me happy.

geez_cheese · 2 months

As someone who has to decide within a month whether or not to spend $10,000 to go to grad school to study Lacanian theory, this is honestly a bit distressing. It's hard to take this author too seriously - he seems to be seething with personal hatred for Lacan the man, and to attack 'Theory' as a whole - but as a neophyte Lacanian, it is hard to accept that my intellecual hero can be accused of "soul-rape".

Personally, I would probably respect Lacan less if he wasn't kind of insane. On the one hand, he was living up to the radical nature of his own theories in daily life. On the other hand, there is no excuse for hurting other people or lying in order to curry favor or boost your ego. I don't know how true the accusations in this article are, but it's certainly given me something to thing about.

ItsDaves · 2 months

Cried after my last high school cross-country meet. To this day, the most fun I've ever had in my whole life was on that team.

kmad · 3 months

He's looking more and more distant and confused too...brain damage!?!?!?

7sshare · 3 months

Yeah I assumed that most lots / repacks would be junk, but I was hoping someone here could point me to a place where they wouldn't be.

7sshare · 3 months

I'd be interested in checking that out, thanks

DemonWor1d · 3 months

Well I meant it more like you have lived your life a billion times before, except one time you sneezed when you woke up on your 5th birthday, and another time you had one less freckle, and another time your first name was different, and another time...

7sshare · 3 months

That's interersting about Lacan's patients committing suicide. I've never heard that before. It just seems to me like Lacan's understanding of psychosis is so much more deep and just plain explanatory than chalking it up to brain chemistry or genetics or whatever. Like if the psychiatric community pursues his ideas on the subject, they'll really be on to something.

7sshare · 3 months

So schizophrenia is a form of psychosis for Lacan, and the DSM uses the same word to describe something different?

Why does schizophrenia warrant a separate category (from paranoia, paraphrenia, etc.) for Lacan? What kind of psychotic phenomena is it used to describe? Are we talking about 'multiple personalities'?

DemonWor1d · 3 months

Haha awesome

DemonWor1d · 3 months

It's a cool idea that used to scare the shit out of me, but I don't really buy it. Imagining time as 'infinite' is just our petty human way of understanding something that we can't really began to comprehend. And if everything has already happened and will happen again infinite times, how is that really any different from it never having happened at all and never occurring in the future? Think about it...

DemonWor1d · 3 months

A man travelling through the woods became lost as the sun went down. At a loss for what to do, he was overjoyed to find an old cabin in a clearing. He spent the night inside, and slept well for being in such a strange situation. His only complaint would have been the portraits on the walls, which seemed to be watching him as he slept. When he awoke he realized there were no portraits in the cabin - only windows.

TaintFarmer · 3 months

The gore seemed unnecessary, the story is creepy enough to not need it.

TaintFarmer · 3 months

One of the most unsettling stories I've ever read.

DemonWor1d · 3 months

Not really a story, but this creeped me out in a weird cosmic kind of way:

"If time is truly infinite and does not have a beginning or an end, then every conceivable course of events that ever could have happened has already happened, infinite times, and will happen again, infinite times."

MoonRabbit · 4 months

Let those two asses be set to grind corn.

magingzulu · 4 months

No but I do think that religion started as a metaphor, and then was taken way too literally.

FabricatedTruth · 4 months

This is the only creepypasta that I ever really found creepy...and god damn, it's pretty scary. Are there any other really good ones like this?

7sshare

TROPHY CASE

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