Self Analysis

In this good article Slavoj Zizek notes that

"today, the formations of the Unconscious (from dreams to hysterical symptoms) have definitely lost their innocence and are thoroughly reflexivized: the "free associations" of a typical educated analysand consist for the most part of attempts to provide a psychoanalytic explanation of their disturbances, so that one is quite justified in saying that we have not only Jungian, Kleinian, Lacanian... interpretations of the symptoms, but symptoms themselves which are Jungian, Kleinian, Lacanian..., i.e. whose reality involves implicit reference to some psychoanalytic theory."

This is to say that we no longer separate the theories of psychoanalysis from our conscious experience. For example:
'Oh my gawd, that is so Oedipal, she looks just like your mom!'
'My best friend died but I am totally repressing my feelings for it, I'll probably get drunk and cry in a few weeks.'
'I don't know why I clean so compulsively, I'm just neurotic, I guess.'

The silly (yes, silly) thing about this is that psychoanalysis is a technique, and not a science. And, particularly and explicitly, is not a science which can be applied to oneself. It works in the context of the relationship between the analyst and analysand. Oedipal structures are useful, not ontological, in the sense that they do not describe real world relations, but can be used to shift harmful mental patterns.

The strange thing, then, is that we actualize these pseudo-scientific beliefs. Self-conscious insecurity leads us to desire partners who remind us of our parents. You really will not think about your dead friend and then let it all out when you are drunk, but you are, in fact, consciously repressing. Not unconsciously. And your neuroses manifest themselves through the filter of your belief in them.

There is a really strange interaction between the supposed unconscious, which is actually conscious, and the real unconscious. Perhaps then each mirrors the other, and limits the spontaneous interaction between the two.

Obama Ohh

Last night in honor of President Obama's impending victory I attempted to eat a full pizza (a full O of pizza). I managed to eat 5 slices and a chicken sandwich at the Hot Club.

I had no O in my stomach, but I did say 'ohhh' and hold my stomach after finishing the last piece. Close enough.

halloween costume

Been Gone for a while

sorry friends, the internet at my house is gone, and we haven't gone to get it back. and i only write my blog later in the day when i don't have a thing else to do.

Taste in Records

A question I have is, if records are analog captures of sound - what is analog to them? For example, a record is to sound as taste is to what? Or as touch is to what? Artificial flavorings? Sex toys? How about this: a leather or velvet fetish is analogous to the sound a record makes. The leather is the skin just like the record sound is the original sound. So Freud helped with touch inventions. Ha. What about taste?

Get to work, young inventor!

Phonomotor

That of course is Thomas Alvah Edison. Here is the best thing that he didn't invent, even though he could have:

THE PHONOMOTOR
is a curious little instrument, invented by Mr. Edison, in practical reply to a jocular challenge from a friend, who asked him, “Why don’t you invent a machine to talk a hole through a board?” He thought a moment, and replied, “I guess I can?” The practical result is a kind of steam drill or augur, which is rotated at an extremely rapid rate, but can only be set and kept in motion by the human voice.

Good Thing Records

My album just got released today on Good Thing Records. It is called Push the Funk Button (by Rich JC). Let me know if you want a copy. I did the cover artwork.