Freud, Trees And A Well Hidden Id: Part One Of Four

From God Knows Why faith Is Thriving

In the secular account, “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 1/2 billion years ago. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You came from nothing and are going nowhere.”

In the Christian view, by contrast, “You are the special creation of a good and all-powerful God. You are the climax of His creation. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He gave the life of His only son that you might spend eternity with him.”

Now imagine two groups of people — let’s call them the Secular Tribe and the Religious Tribe — who subscribe to one of these two views. Which of the two is more likely to survive, prosper and multiply? The religious tribe is made up of people who have an animating sense of purpose. The secular tribe is made up of people who are not sure why they exist at all. The religious tribe is composed of individuals who view their every thought and action as consequential. The secular tribe is made up of matter that cannot explain why it is able to think at all.

We have come to understand our own place in the Cosmos  largely by way of how we have come to define ourselves. The philosophies of the temples of science revolve around the notion that each of us are really no more than a brick on the evolutionary path with no real point to our existence. There is only the here and now and that is all that matters. What is good and bad are determined by the needs, desires and ideologues of the moment.

Are we really no more than just another brick on the blind path of evolution? For many, the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ For most people on the planet however, the answer is ‘no.’ Despite years of indoctrination and secularist ideas forced down the throats of billions of people for successive generations, life has a meaning and purpose that extends beyond the here and now.

Progressive and secular ideologies have never been accepted by most people on the planet. If progressive and secular ideologies were subject to the rules of business, they would be deemed ‘also rans.’ Progressive and secular ideologies are influential beyond their numbers because western legal systems allow for their equal influence. They can demand their ideas be imposed on a larger majority because our legal system recognizes their rights to not share in what most of us believe.

In fairness, that is not always a bad thing. Religion cannot and should not be ‘imposed’ on anyone or any group.The government must never be allowed to endorse one religion over another. In a democracy, very few if any, argue that.

The issue today is about who gets to decide what ‘imposition’ means. Is a Christmas tree in an airport imposing faith? Is a Menorah at City Hall equally offensive?

In a roundabout way, those questions were first addressed by Sigmund Freud.

As the 20th century approached and the Victorian Era ended,  Freud addressed the issues man had struggled with from the beginning of time. He started a movement that was to examine our search for context and meaning in a contemporary and scientific way, outside the traditional or religious ‘box.’ He attempted to look at the human psyche outside religious or traditional garb.

We are all endowed with primal and more sophisticated needs (see Maslow’s Hierarchy) . We need to survive, we need to eat and we seek physical gratifications of all kinds.These needs are individual and self centered.

We need to be a part of a community and we also need to establish relationships on a more intimate level. So that our community and more intimate relationships with our families and loved ones might flourish, we take comfort in living productive lives and making our little corner of the world a better place. We develop a conscience and establish moral and ethical codes of behavior, all based on shared values.

Lastly, we seek to aspire higher. We retreat back into ourselves and struggle with our spiritual selves and our search for meaning. These things do not come easily. We struggle with the forces that influence our behavior. Sometimes, people are willfully mistreated. Other times, people are abused because we deliberately choose to turn our backs.

Each of us is engaged in some kind of struggle.

Children learn from us the lessons that will determine how they live their lives. If we teach them that life has meaning and purpose beyond the immediate, they will live their lives accordingly.  If they learn that life is to be lived for the here and now only, they will live a very different life with a very different set of values.

The stakes are high, because if we are anything less than sure of our personal and communal values our children will pay for our insecurities. As parents and stewards of the next generation, it is incumbent upon us to prepare children to be sure of themselves and unafraid to confront the future.

When our own adversarial and opposing ideas and values come into conflict, children are impacted. They become immobilized and are invariably hurt by the collision.There is an entire generation of the walking wounded that have to pick up the pieces of broken and undefined lives, heal and learn to establish a meaningful life- all because they never knew who they really were. They never knew if their lives has meaning beyond the immediate or if they were a panel in the tapestry of life.

When a person is taught that life is about the here and now only, we ought not be surprised when some kids pick up guns and shoot up malls or churches, or high school or college campuses. They want to be famous, they say. They want the celebrity, they say. In fact,what they really want is meaning. They want to be remembered as something other than a consuming and valueless individual. They want to have a purpose and leave a legacy. Sadly, in a world that encompasses the here and now only, the world legacy has taken on a new meaning. People identify with sleazy politicians and not with priests. Kids want to be singers and not surgeons.

Those things that influence our here and now are meant to be diversions from our real lives- they are not meant to replace them. Entertainment and entertainers are pleasant diversion and offer a few moments respite from our busy and productive lives. Entertainment and entertainers are not meant to serve as the blueprints and models for our lives. Actors and Hollywood values were not meant to replace academics and poets were not meant to replace soldiers who defend our nation and the values of freedom.

Back to Freud. Who are we, really and what drives us? Is it the here and now or is it something else?

The easy answer is the Darwinian one. The here and now, the selfish and self serving model is the engine of the human psyche.  We are no different than any other species of animal. Of course, that only addresses our physical survival and not out psychological evolution. The ideas of Social Darwinism were in vogue for a very short time, because those kind of ‘here and now’ ideas justified colonialism, European domination and the wildly unequal distribution of wealth and power. We were perfectly happy with physical evolution and a lot less happy with social evolution. That bothered our conscience. We weren’t quite ready to throw the poor and powerless to the wolves, ’survival of the fittest’ notwithstanding.

Freud’s primal ‘Id,‘ that part of us that is consumed by the desire and chase for pleasure is tempered by the ‘Ego,’ that part of us that lives in the real world and sees beyond the animal here and now. The Ego introduces rational thought and reality into our interface with the world and people around us. We come to understand compromise and negotiation amongst ourselves and our community via the Ego.

The Ego also serves as the ‘broker’ between the Id and the Superego, that part of us that is moral and ethical. Our Superego wants what is best for our children and society and in fact, we obviate our primal Id in favor of our Superego. We live by rules because because we are all better for it. The here and now is an impediment to personal and communal growth and security.

We are not meant to define our lives by the here and now alone.

Who we are is a complex interaction of our Id, Ego and Superego. If we are not very clear on which of our psychological attributes are most important to our existence, we will live lives of profound inner conflict and anxiety and engage in the most self destructive kinds of defense mechanisms (see Dr Sanity, here).

We are not animals, concerned only with our needs for self gratification and desires for immediate pleasure. We desire that our offspring excel and not just survive.Our history as a species proves that. We may not always get it right, but in the end, we do more often than not. Our greatest failures come about as the result of an active or passive focus on the here and now. We can choose to address problems, pretend they don’t exist or turn a blind eye to them.

If we focus on the here and now only, we have no right to demand anything of others. If narcissism is the order of the day, why should we care who gets hurt in the process of our seeking to fulfill our needs?

There are those who might argue that imposed rules keep us from destroying ourselves, but in truth that is a hollow argument. The best reason people have for coexisting are shared values and ideals- equivalent Superegos that supersede the Id’s here and now.  People understand that to be a parent and to live in relative peace is in their own best interest. There is something beyond the here and now.

This is not ‘coexisting’ on the savanna’s of Africa. Humans exist to cooperate, share  and elevate each other. If anything, Social Darwinism dictates that rather than exclude, we have thrived as a species because we have included.

It is not the lowest common denominator that has served to elevate man. It has been the highest. While we all have basic and primal instincts, they are overshadowed by our own potential and capacity, a most uniquely spiritual endeavor.

That highest part of ourselves, our Superegos, do not fear the religious message of the Holiday season. Christmas trees and menorahs are meant to elevate and not intimidate. All too often, the here and now of the Id, camouflaged as something other that what it really is, takes center stage- and we’re all the poorer for it.

More later.

Portions of this post have been previously published.

About these ads