Wednesday 13 September 2017

Disavowal and the Fetish...


"The fetish is a substitute for the mother's penis." [1]



This may seem a particularly outlandish statement for Sigmund Freud to make, talking about the way an infant processes the dawning awareness of their parent's anatomy, he continues: "for a particular and quite special penis that had been extremely important in early childhood but had later been lost. That is to say, it should normally have been given up."

The realization of the absence of a Female phallus -knowledge which owing to castration anxiety the child disavows[2], results in a simultaneous belief and disbelief in the existence of the Female phallus, what one sees is not what one expected or desires to see.

Freud had met a number of 'Fetishists' in his psycho-analytic practice , he noticed in them all an aversion to the actual female genitalia, the natural curiosity one would normally experience being sublimated onto a number of other stimuli; body parts; objects and situations.

This traumatic perception of a lack persists, but "a very energetic action has been undertaken to maintain the disavowal", to deny the reality of it. This compromise, the antagonism between perception and counter-wish, results in the development of an ersatz fetish, which "remains a token of triumph over the threat of castration and a protection against it", and "inherits the interest formerly dedicated to it's predecessor."

 Much as in bygone epochs the lives we lead in this modern age, being so palpably deprived of pleasure --notwithstanding the all too fleeting glimpses we may catch in the attainment of a goal; the subjugation of an enemy; participation in a productive enterprise; the exhilarating intensity of sexual climax; in satiating our desires; or in one's favorite meal eaten in good company-- are filled with multifarious counterfeit joys; fetishized, frequently monetized outlets & forms of enjoyment[3], with which we numb our fear and trembling; acute, or general dissatisfaction with a real that is becoming increasingly unattainable.

Completely disabused of our illusions, what one does see may undermine the very tenuous stability of the infantile human psyche altogether, therefore, owing to "the portion of narcissism Nature, as precaution, attaches to that particular organ" the Fetishist retains the illusion in an altered form.
God, which is to say an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, divine master, is the substitute for the absence of a God, Hierarchically revealed Truth™  is the substitute for the absence of truth, resulting from the individuals inability to apprehend 'it'.

____

[1] S. Freud, Fetishism (1927) [paraphrased]
[2] The term "disavowal" (Verleugnung ), often translated as "denial," denotes a mental act that consists in rejecting the reality of a perception on account of its potentially traumatic associations.
"The process I would like to describe as denial [Verleugnung ] . . . appears to be neither rare nor very dangerous for the mental life of the child, but in adults it could lead to psychosis." S. Freud, Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes (1925)
[3] Sports here offers it's opium for a number of unfulfilled desires: the sense of community; identification with shining examples of vitality, prowess, ability etc; the vicarious thrill of competition;victory; the unifying sadness of defeat...Social media is another interesting example, in this case indicating the reality of social atomization, alienation; and irreconcilable antagonisms between everyday life, and the phantasmagorical portrayal of celebrity culture presented to us daily in the media, which so many use these platforms in attempts to emulate and reproduce, with themselves (portrayed particularly favourably) represented as the object of fascination.


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