Philosophy 152 Philosophy of Human Nature Darwall Fall 1996 FREUD II I Last time we discussed the difference between the observer's standpoint and the agent's standpoint. As observer's we want to understand what happens. As agent's we want to determine what to do. We look for reasons in both enterprises, but the kinds of reasons are different. From an observer's standpoint, we seek reasons that explain. From an agent's standpoint, we seek reasons that justify. This the contrast between reasons why something happnes vs. reasons to do something. II But we can also want to understand certain happenings as actions. And here we seek to understand what happened as something someone did for some reason. We seek to understand the person's reason for so acting. We can also take this perspective on our own actions. Here we seek to understand why we did what we did in the sense of coming to grasp what our reasons were. III In many cases this is simple enough. But often it can be difficult to tell what our reasons for acting really were. And in many cases it will seem to us as if we had no real reason for so acting, or that it wasn't even really an action. One reason why this is frequently so, Freud maintains, is that our reasons are unconscious. By that he means not just that these are reasons of which we are unaware. That can be so even when a moment's thought will reveal our reasons to us. Rather, the kinds of case that interest Freud are cases where are reasons are hidden from us. IV But what could hide our reasons from us? Freud describes a psychological process he calls repression. The occasion of repression is the having of a thought, emotion, or fantasy that is too psychologically dangerous to consciously entertain. Perhaps it is a child's sexual fantasy involving its mother and thinking it through would invite fears of father's retaliation (the Oedipus complex). To reduce this pain and anxiety, the mind represses the emotion or thought--it keeps it unconscious. But because the emotion or drive is unsatisfied, it continues to exert its force, but in a way that keeps itself hidden from the person who has it. It presents reasons for acting to the person who acts on them, but unconsciously. Example: Anna O. (symptoms, p. 283/ precipitating incident, p. 283) V Acting on reasons that are kept hidden from us means that our actions are less under our rational control. Psychoanalysis is a method of recovering conscious control. By gaining access to the unconscious emotion by vividly remembering the precipitating event, the formerly unconscous emotion can now be acknowledged and satisfied. It ceases then to exercise its unconscious control.