Re: Freud on vehicles?

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Sun 07 Mar 2004 - 15:01:30 GMT

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    At 02:21 AM 06/03/04 -0500, you wrote:

    >Selfish gene enthusiasts might want to grok this one from Freud that, in
    >its very archaic way, touches on the issue of individuals as vehicles
    >carrying immortal coils. Freud says (BTW, I've sifted through a lot of
    >silt for this gold nugget so cut me some slack):
    >
    >(bq)"The individual does actually carry on a double existence: one
    >designed to serve his own purposes and another as a link in a chain, in
    >which he serves against, or at any rate without, any volition of his own.
    >The individual himself regards sexuality as one of his own ends; while
    >from another point of view he is only an appendage to his germ-plasm, to
    >which he lends his energies, taking in return his toll of pleasure- the
    >mortal vehicle of a (possibly) immortal substance- like the inheritor of
    >an entailed property who is only the temporary holder of an estate which
    >survives him."(eq)

    That's quite a find! At the least someone who has Richard Dawkin's email should send this to him.

    Keith Henson

    >Granted this has been translated from the German by somebody named Cecil
    >Baines and I've no idea how the original reads compared to the
    >translation, but the use of words like mortal vehicle and immortal
    >substance strikes me as rather fascinating.
    >
    >This quote is from Freud's "On Narcissism" (1914) as found on page 401 of
    >_The Major Works of Sigmund Freud_ (Great Books of the Western World
    >(vol54) 1952/1986. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Chicago)
    >
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