Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 10:06:02 +0000
From: Daniel Haines <daniel-AT-tw2.com>
Subject: Re: guilt as symbolic mediator


Jeanraiso-AT-aol.com wrote:
> 
> Daniel wrote:
> << guilt as the symbolic mediator for society as such.... >>
> 
> in Freud's sense? is that what you mean?
> can you say more?

I'll try!

I don't know if I meant this "in freud's sense" as I'm not sure what his
sense would be... but certainly freud was in my mind.  I find a lot of
freud's writing incredibly interesting and astute, as far as it goes;
but it remains within a discourse that has some major problems! -
regarding freud and anti-oedipus I tend to think the problem that d&g
work over is that freud dodges (a little hysteria, perhaps?) the
"social" bit of "social reality" and consequently inserts his own
culturally conditioned sensibilty into the psyche as a supposedly
non-cultural given. so the unconscious ends up being structured only by
and in relation to the conscious (as a "theatre of representation"), and
the demand to face (social) reality represses the need to liberate
unconscious desire: he seems to come to the conclusion that we're all
neurotic, which is "okay" (that is, "normal") as long as we're not
psychotic... (especially not schizophrenic!). this is, as many people
have comented, to replace one original sin with another --- but if we 
re-emphasise the "social" in social reality then it is also an amazingly
insightful recognition of the fucked up way society conditions our
behaviour!

this self-neuroticisation (if there is such a word), where we repress
our own unconsicious desiring production in order to meet the demands of
a social reality which has other regimes is in some sense what I would
understand by the notion of "castration" which is both symbolic and not
at all symbolic, as the effects of this kind of repression are manifest
and are both psychic and physical.  the key thing for me here is that we
do this to ourselves - which is not to say we have to or that it is
somehow "the human condition" to do this.  but we do it to ourselves in
connection with the  little machines of our social existence... we
connect to the machines, we are the machines... more than freud I was
thinking of nietzsche and of bad conscience, of ressentiment which I
would relate to castration/neurosis.  Whcih in a round about way is what
I meant when I said "guilt as the symbolic mediator for society as
such".  Bad conscience, the castrated ego as the (lacking!) foundation
for social interaction - subjection, compliance, subservience guaranteed
by a sense of guilt (lack, inadequacy, worthlessness, badness). 

in capitalism, this also relates to exchange, the web of exchanges that
govern all interaction - from economics to etiquette --> the sense of
panic  produced by an unprompted gift that for a moment seems as if it
couldn't be returned, couldn't be made into an exchange... "but I didn't
get them anything!  this gift is almost an insult, a piece of rancour, a
wound..." the need to respond to others requests/needs as a matter of
responsibility -- our responsibility to one another, sadly, more often
than not, motivated by a slave-morality, a sense of compulsion. 
castration. lack. guilt. how often do people help each other out of
strength, excess of strength - out of nobility?

"guilt as the symbolic mediator for society as such" ??

hope this is clearer. lots of different things to try and say on this
point - sorry for jumble...

dan h.99
--
http://www.fortunecity.com/roswell/chupacabras/48/     
http://www.tw2.com/staff/daniel/

Ware ware Karate-do o shugyo surumonowa,
Tsuneni bushido seishin o wasurezu,
Wa to nin o motte nashi,
Soshite tsutomereba kanarazu tasu.

We who study Karate-do,
Should never forget the spirit of the samurai,
With peace, perseverance and hard work,
We will reach our goal without failure.