Andy, The first step has not yet been taken. The first step would be simply to acknowledge that WE ARE RESPONSIBLE: we are the source. I followed your argument a few months ago following my to my Call for Papers for the special issue of PEACE REVIEW on the "Psychological Interpretation of War." I was very impressed by your insistence that we cannot attribute what occurs to historical or cultural "forces" that are separate from = the individual. Who created the culture of war? Who is the source of = history? Human beings are. We are the source. To recognize this is the first step in becoming conscious. We have not yet taken this step. With regards, Richard Koenigsberg ____________________________________________________________ Library of Social Science Book Exhibits 92-30 56th Avenue, Suite 3-E, Elmhurst, NY 11373 http://home.earthlink.net/~lssbookexhibits/index.html Fax: 1-413-832-8145 Richard A. Koenigsberg, Ph. D., Director Telephone: 1-718-393-1081 Mei Ha Chan, Associate Director Telephone: 1-718-393-1075 Orion Anderson, Customer Service Manager Telephone: 1-718-393-1104 -----Original Message----- From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx = [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andy Amago Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2005 8:07 PM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Making Conscious the Unconscious in Social = Reality I think it's a huge first step in the right direction, a step almost = never taken. After the awareness, though, what to do with the unconscious = drives has to be the next step. Woody Allen made his living on Step 1, never moving into Step 2. Andy Amago -----Original Message----- From: "Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D." = <libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Feb 10, 2005 11:36 AM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Making Conscious the Unconscious in Social Reality =20 =20 A character in a James Joyce's novel said that, "History is a nightmare = from which I am trying to awake." The history of the Twentieth Century-with = its horrendous episodes of brutality and mass-slaughter-resembles a waking nightmare-a bad dream that many people are having at once. By becoming conscious of the unconscious fantasies that generate collective = violence, is it possible to awakening from the nightmare of history? =20 Richard A. Koenigsberg _____ =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 MAKING CONSCIOUS THE UNCONSCIOUS IN SOCIAL REALITY Freud called dreams the "royal road to the (individual) unconscious." I = view political ideology as the royal road to the cultural unconscious. I = theorize ideologies from the perspective of what they do-psychologically-for = people. According to this view, ideologies exist and persist-are embraced and perpetuated-to the extent that they perform psychic functions for individuals within a population. To study a particular ideology, = therefore, is to reveal its psychic meaning-the needs, desires, fantasies, = conflicts and human dilemmas to which the ideology responds.=20 RETURN TO THE MOTHER (COUNTRY)=20 Images and metaphors in Hitler's writings and speeches reveal a = regressive desire for union with the mother as the source of his ideology. In Mein Kampf, he wrote of the elemental cry of the German-Austrian people for "union with the German mother country" that represented a longing to = "return to the never-forgotten ancestral home." He stated that the heart and = memory of German Austrians never ceased to "feel for the common mother = country."=20 Hitler projected symbiotic fantasy into political units. Austria = symbolized Hitler's body and Germany the body of his mother. Hitler's political ideology pointed toward destroying the boundaries separating Austria and Germany so that the two separate bodies politic could fuse into a single body politic. The actualization of this fantasy would mean that = henceforth the "twofold destinies of Austria and Germany" would become "eternally = one;" there would be "no separation of history into Germany and Austria."=20 _____ =20 The complete paper by Richard A. Koenigsberg is available for the first = time as an on-line publication. To read: MAKING CONSCIOUS THE UNCONSCIOUS IN SOCIAL REALITY PLEASE <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=3Dggzne8aab.0.0.85y8w8n6.0&p=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fhome= .earthl ink.net%2F%7Elibraryofsocialscience%2Fonline_pubs.htm> CLICK HERE or = visit: http://home.earthlink.net/~library <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=3Dggzne8aab.0.0.85y8w8n6.0&p=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fhome= .earthl ink.net%2F%7Elibraryofsocialscience%2Fonline_pubs.htm> ofsocialscience/online_pubs.htm =20 =20 _______________________________________________________________ IDEOLOGY AND TRANSFERENCE People assume that political ideas or calls to action stem from = conditions or situations in the world. What my research suggests is that one cannot separate political aspirations from unconscious desires or fantasies. If Hitler had not externalized his symbiotic fantasy into politics, the = idea of uniting Austria and Germany would have been of no interest to him. = Hitler's interest in and attachment to his political ideology derived from the fantasy that he projected into it.=20 Hitler is appropriate as a case study because the texts-his writings and speeches-are pervaded with primary process imagery. When Hitler writes = of the desire to reunite Austria and Germany as a longing that burns in the hearts of "children separated from their mother country" and as a wish = to "return to the heart of their faithful mother," we witness the = astonishing directness with which he projects fantasies into his ideology. We are = amazed to see primal fantasies expressed so blatantly and to realize that these fantasies were the source of history. MAKING CONSCIOUS THE UNCONSCIOUS=20 Norman O. Brown suggests that the unconscious can become conscious = through projection into the external world. Brown states that repressed = unconscious energies must "go out into external reality before they can be perceived = by consciousness." Culture, Brown declares, is "one vast arena in which the logic of the transference works itself out," allowing human beings to "project the infantile complexes into concrete reality, where they can = be seen and mastered." Thus, Brown concludes, "culture actually does for = all mankind what the transference phenomena were supposed to do for the individual."=20 The project of studying ideology as container for shared fantasy is both theoretical and clinical. In the Twentieth Century, approximately two-hundred million people were killed because of violent political conflicts initiated by societies. Most of this violence has been = generated by ideologies embraced as absolutes and defended fanatically. Why do = human beings attach to ideologies so passionately? What is the relationship between passionate attachment to an ideology and societal violence?=20 A character in James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, said that, "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." The history of the Twentieth Century-with its horrendous episodes of brutality and mass-slaughter-resembles a waking nightmare-a bad dream that many people = are having at once. By becoming conscious of the unconscious fantasies that generate collective violence, is it possible to "awakening from the nightmare of history?" The interpretation of ideology is an extension of Freud's project of interpreting dreams. We turn to the interpretation of collective dreams. =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html