Safety Valves of the Psyche: Reading Freud on Aggression, Morality, and Internal Emotions

Philosophies

Daniel O’Shiel¹ 

[1] Institute for Philosophy, Diego Portales University, Santiago 8370109, Chile;

关键词: aggression;    disgust;    emotion;    Freud;    jokes;    morality;   

DOI  :  10.3390/philosophies6040086

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This article argues for a Freudian theory of internal emotion, which is best characterised as key “safety valves of the psyche”. After briefly clarifying some of Freud’s metapsychology, I present an account regarding the origin of (self-)censorship and morality as internalised aggression. I then show how this conception expands and can be detailed through a defence of a hydraulic model of the psyche that has specific “safety valves” of disgust, shame, and pity constantly counteracting specific sets of Freudian drives. This model is important for explicating Freud’s crucial concept of sublimation, which continues to have key therapeutic and normative relevance today, which I show through the case of jokes. I finish with the argument that largely happy, productive lives can be seen as in a dynamic between the release of too much (perversion) and too little (neurosis) psychical pressure through these mechanisms.

【 授权许可】

Unknown