Thursday, October 18, 2007
The Real and University Pub Nites
This is a response to Freud and Lacan's ideas about the Real. I suppose its more pertinent to psychology and a bit of a tangent from the actual lecture, but it got me thinking so here goes...
If self-awareness is what distinguishes reality from the Real, then perhaps we reconnect with the real in moments when we lose self-awareness. In lecture, the prof said that the Real is the sense that "something's missing," universal to all people. He suggested we satisfy our desire to reconnect with the Real by sating our desires for sex and food. I wonder if it also in the moments that we are truly engaged - in conversation with friends and peers, or overcome by a beautiful sight or sound - that we stop being aware of ourselves, no longer plagued by the loss of the Real.
In this light, it is interesting to consider a quote from Engels. Describing the working class men of the early decades of the British industrial revolution, he notes that
"liquor is almost their only source of pleasure...[Drunkenness provides] the certainty of forgetting for an hour or two the wretchedness and burden of life and a hundred other circumstances so mighty that the worker can, in true, hardly be blamed for yielding to such overwhelming pressure."
Most people know that alcohol and drugs can provide the chance to relax and "escape reality." Assume reconnecting with the Real seems essential to mental health and satisfaction. In demanding work environments, perhaps mild substance abuse can accelerate the process?
So the next time you're at a U of T pub nite, take a moment to be aware of your surroundings, if you can. Look around at your peers. Consider that you may be witnessing not only people unwinding, getting and drunk, but perhaps some "reconnections with the Real." Doesnt that feel better?
Cheers
If self-awareness is what distinguishes reality from the Real, then perhaps we reconnect with the real in moments when we lose self-awareness. In lecture, the prof said that the Real is the sense that "something's missing," universal to all people. He suggested we satisfy our desire to reconnect with the Real by sating our desires for sex and food. I wonder if it also in the moments that we are truly engaged - in conversation with friends and peers, or overcome by a beautiful sight or sound - that we stop being aware of ourselves, no longer plagued by the loss of the Real.
In this light, it is interesting to consider a quote from Engels. Describing the working class men of the early decades of the British industrial revolution, he notes that
"liquor is almost their only source of pleasure...[Drunkenness provides] the certainty of forgetting for an hour or two the wretchedness and burden of life and a hundred other circumstances so mighty that the worker can, in true, hardly be blamed for yielding to such overwhelming pressure."
Most people know that alcohol and drugs can provide the chance to relax and "escape reality." Assume reconnecting with the Real seems essential to mental health and satisfaction. In demanding work environments, perhaps mild substance abuse can accelerate the process?
So the next time you're at a U of T pub nite, take a moment to be aware of your surroundings, if you can. Look around at your peers. Consider that you may be witnessing not only people unwinding, getting and drunk, but perhaps some "reconnections with the Real." Doesnt that feel better?
Cheers
# posted by sam.butler @ 11:29 AM 
