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Document Details : Title: Psychotische zelfverwijten Subtitle: Agressie is een oorspronkelijke en zelfstandige drift Author(s): MOYAERT, Paul Journal: Tijdschrift voor Filosofie Volume: 85 Issue: 4 Date: 2023 Pages: 483-504 DOI: 10.2143/TVF.85.4.3293175 Abstract : In his explorations of human aggression, Freud focuses on one question. Given the fact that excessive aggression exists, what does it teach us about the nature of the aggressive drive? It is striking that Freud does not localize the most excessive expression of aggression in phenomena in which we tend to localize it, i.e., bullying behavior, sexual rape, torture, revengefulness, and excessive war violence. For him, psychotic self-reproaches, as in melancholia, are the purest form of aggression. This aggression comes from an unbridled Super-Ego. In contrast with neurotic self-reproaches, in melancholia, the Ego does not offer any resistance against the aggression from its Super-Ego. The Ego coincides with the content of the condemnations. There is no narcissism, no personal pleasure involved in this aggression. This incites Freud to understand why the Super-Ego can be so cruel. Where does its aggression come from? Is the Super-Ego not rather the moral instant that forbids violence: 'You shall not kill'? Melancholia reveals that the energy of the Super-Ego comes from the sadistic drive. The Super-Ego returns the aggression living in the self against the Ego. This brings Freud to the metaphysical conclusion he elaborated in Culture and its Discontents: aggression is an original, independent, and object-indifferent drive. |
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