Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) offered the world plenty of fascinating and often shocking ideas. His seduction theory, infantile sexuality, parapraxes (Freudian slips), Oedipus complex, Electra complex, penis envy, castration anxiety, forms of fixation, and, in general, unconscious mind full of repressed… Read more ›
In previous posts we have seen ways in which Eros (erotic love) can imply, lead to, or be thwarted by Thanatos (death). Here is yet another example of a relation between the two. In his book The Meanings of Love… Read more ›
In post #55 (go here) I explored, with reference to Freud, the dynamics of eros (love) and thanatos (death). Here I would like to continue these reflections with reference to Plato. In his dialogue Symposium, Plato has his character Socrates… Read more ›
Sigmund Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, claims, like the pre-Socratic Empedocles before him, that there are two “Heavenly Powers” or mutually opposing instincts: Eros and Thanatos. Freud characterizes these two principles as follows: eros is the instinct to conserve… Read more ›