tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3314914268727443114.post5377680433420574305..comments2023-10-31T12:43:06.690-04:00Comments on NishmaBlog: "NaRaN" and Freudian EgoNishmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04237299801109329429noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3314914268727443114.post-51794555115804786592011-03-27T13:22:43.491-04:002011-03-27T13:22:43.491-04:00R' Lord Sacks frequently writes about Western ...R' Lord Sacks frequently writes about Western Civ as a dialog between Athens and Jerusalem. (I haven't heard RLJS relate it to RSRH's take on "Yaft E-lokim leYefes veyishkon bo'ahalei Sheim" -- but if he didn't he should!) In the CR's thought, Freud was a misstep -- he pulled in pagan mythos, Athens, for something that really required J-m. What reminded me of this <br /><br />IMHO, Freud erred because he lacked religion. So, to him, the counterbalance to the Id would be a collection of externally imposed rules combined with a need to be accepted and to conform. I would agree that the Id pretty much captures the notion of nefesh, and Ego is somewhat like the ruach (although less closely so than Id), at least as the Gra defines these terms. But he had no room in his worldview for an aspect of man that lives within heaven, and who has a primary need or urge to live a meaningful and giving life. No less so than the nefesh/Id's desires for hedonism, epicurean delights and creature comforts. Thus, Freud's whole psychology of repression, suppression, and sublimation is a product of his overly physicalist world-view. Instead, Jewish sources portray the Ego as the product of trying to navigate conflicting sets of urges. (C.g. R Dessler's notion of nequdas habechirah -- consciousness comes into play where there is such a conflict to navigate.)<br /><br />It may be useful to also explore Adler's Parent-Adult-Child, although it too places recordings of parental instructions as the counterbalance to the animal we are born as. More relevent might be Frankl's Search for Meaning, which acknowledges man as having innate spiritual drives, although I haven't encountered his "anatomy of the soul".<br /><br />I find it interesting, BTW, that people speak of yeitzer hara vs yeitzer hatov -- a duality. But when a cartoon depicts a person making a moral decision by having a little angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, they draw his face THREE times -- once on each "advisor", and once on the person doing the deciding between them. Yeitzer hatov vs yeitzer hara must also include a ruach, a conscious decider. The third element in any psychological model.<br /><br />-michamicha bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11612144735431285113noreply@blogger.com