Why are humans so neurotic ?

Kambika

Why are humans so neurotic?

The principle of neuroses ensures that man does not abandon his humanness. A suitable parable is to imagine a column of ants in which the ants blindly follow a linear path; man's neuroses restrain it in a simailar way. Humans, however, imagine themselves as being something better. Their egocentric view of the world compels them to see life in the three-dimensional plane as absolute. Thus is he afraid of forfeiting his life without having found happiness on this earth. But how does he find this happiness? He orientates himself on other people, not developing his own concept for fear that it could be wrong (column of ants). The problem is that, in this way, concepts of happiness arise which are so absurd that man fails to adhere to the theoretical boundaries. But why do such obstructive ideas about the existence arise?

Humans big problem
Man allows himself to be distracted from important matters by trivialities. He does not have the healthy sense of nihilism to differentiate between the two; he gets upset about all sorts of banalities, and in doing so, barks so loudly that he can no longer hear the music of structure. Even "highly spiritual" people; most advocates of certain beliefs (buddhism, etc), are altogether too fixated with godly orderliness, without understanding the boundless chaos.

The solution
Nothing is true, everything is allowed. All moral standards apart from your own should be despised as they are more a hinderance than a help. Man himself is part of the whole; therefore man recognises the whole in himself. A healthy self-observation with the realisation of human neuroses (the driving forces are quite strong) leads to the establishment of a "spirit", a personality that is so powerful that it can work magic. The essence of magic cannot be described, but you could say that it is very interesting. It is important to follow your own spiritual path and not become entwined in the whole human tragedy-comedy. So metamorphises the .... man into an overman, a demigod.

amp

People like order. Or the appearance of order. And most people like a routine. And religions answer those annoying questions like what happens when I die etc.

Your solution wouldn't work. Without some order humanity would have to revert back to medieval farming methods and lose a good percentage of it's population. Somebodies got to brew the beer, make the cakes, drill the oil.

So as a race we cannot go back. And a lot of what you call neuroses are actually social conditioning, which, for all it's faults is required for society to function.

hedgetrimmer

It could be argued that neurosis keeps man aware of possibilities and potnetial by constantly thinking at tangent to a given situation.

I also think that the speed of modern society, the breakdown in the long-held victorian definition of gender roles, the acceleration of science, the failing of religion to satisfy spiritual needs - all these things which deserve their own treatments, but together with other things constitutes our modern psyche/ psychosis - this situation breeds neurosis as a defence mechanism.

I know there's a ton of stuff there, but I needed to get it out and only have a few minutes. Woulc be glad to deal with aspects in turn/ questions should anyone have them

Kambika

What I further want to mention is that "my suggested solution" is probably nothing for the mass, its more for the individual.
And yea, you might be right, in practial it would never work, but its the perfect theory in my eyes, its my own perfection :-p

comet

You seem to be clever people, whats your thinking on the meaning of life in these 2 worlds:

a) a world where we believe there is a God

b) a world where we know for certain there is no God

fimble

What is this thread actually about? Could someone explain it because all I've read is meandering nonsense.

Is somebody saying that neurosis is a condition that drives humans' need for unity or that Man's quest for unity is ultimately the cause of neurosis?

If this is the case, then Kambika's solution is false because the meaning-making process, if that's what he's characterising as neurosis, is cyclical. To embrace chaos is to forfeit the certainty of unity, but to embrace unity only generates further uncertainty. According to people like Freud and Heidegger, this cycle of neurosis or angst is fundamentally about the cycle of life, eternally locked in torsion.

Anyway, the whole thread is a bit pointless until Kambika actually defines neurosis and better explains his position.

Mr White

Freud was a race-conscious jew,who approached psychological questions from the perspective of jewish interests.He pathologized traits in gentiles which jews like himself exhibited in abundance,eg.authoritarianism,racial loyalties.Radical individualism among gentiles,as proposed by the thread starter, is 'good for jews' because it facilitates Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy.

zenith

Providing statements like this, especially out of context in the thread, and without backing it up factually, is out of line with the humanities charter.

To quote Peter Gay, an academic, on Freud:

"It was as an atheist that Freud developed psychoanalysis; it was from his atheist vantage point that he could dismiss as well-meaning but futile gestures all attempts to find common ground between faith and unbelief; it was, finally, as a particular kind of atheist, a Jewish atheist, that he was enabled to make his momentous discoveries."

More on Gay's work here:

http://www.yale.edu/yup/books/040083.htm

The opinon of Mr White appears to be dangerously close to the type of babble expressed in places like this:

http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-mindcon...reudianism.html

In summary: reputable academics don't believe Freud was part of a conspiracy of anything. Back it up if you care to repeat it, Mr White. If it wasn't your intention to express that viewpoint, perhaps you could make that clear.

I nearly deleted your point, but I think it's only fair to give you the opportunity to set the record straight.

Mr White

Freud had a very strong Jewish identity,although he rejected religion.He described himself as "a fanatical Jew" in a 1931 letter, and was strongly sympathetic with Zionism.His ingroup loyalty was exemplified by the following comment:"I have often felt as though I inherited all the obstinacy and all the passions of our ancestors when they defended their temple,as though I could throw away my life with joy for a great moment"(Freud:a life for our time,by Peter Gay,p604).

The "outgroup" for him was gentile culture,especially the Catholic Church and the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy,for which he had a great deal of hostility.His "Hannibal phantasy" in Interpretation of Dreams made this clear:"Hannibal...had been the favourite hero of my later school days...And when in the higher classes I began to understand for the first time what it meant to belong to an alien race...the figure of the semitic general rose still higher in my esteem.To my youthful mind Hannibal and Rome symbolized the conflict between the tenacity of Jewry and the organization of the Catholic Church." In other words,Freud was self-identified as a member of "an alien race" at war with Rome and its daughter institution, the Catholic Church,a central institution of Western culture.