Friday, January 6, 2023

Our Troubled Republic

 


Current statistics  on income inequality, mental and physical health, Covid-19 death, domestic violence, military expenditures  (  An article on the front page of the December 18, 2022 New York Times  titled "Bonanza for Arms Makers  as Military Budget Surges -Amid Ukraine War and Growing  Threats, US plans, 858  Billion in Spending "), global warming, IRS dysfunction  and homelessness suggest personal and interpersonal  toxic dysfunction. Other factors interfering with man's pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain is based on the ravages of nature as in hurricanes, fires, etc.; the decline or decay of the health of the body , as in obesity, asthma, diabetes,  cardiology , virus, cognitive deficiency; and  other restrictions, conflicts and disappointments occurring in our republic.  This essay addresses  Freud and Murray’s thinking regarding man's needs and drives for survival, affiliation, sex,  destruction and death.


Life is  difficult  with its numerous and painful disappointments, conflicts and impossible situations to resolve for  well-being and survival.  Man  attempts to distort this reality with various deflections, such as immersing himself in sports, entertainment, travels, social media;  finds substitute satisfactions such as imagination, fantasy, art, music and science;  ingesting intoxicating substances such as nicotine, alcohol, drugs;  and   withdraws as in yoga or seeks religion to be taken care of  and for affiliation along with it’s preposterous explanations of   life and afterlife meanings .


What is the purpose of life?  Why do we exist?  Is it seeking pleasure, happiness and the satisfaction of one's needs?  In any event, the relation of unhappiness  to happiness goes back and forth . The reduction of pain is called happiness.  A brief example follows.  One of my friends, in his early 70s, recently experienced 12 1/2 hours of surgery with four surgeons .  His recovery was difficult and taxing .  From that assault on his body, he  recently told me that he was happy because the doctors didn't find cancer and now he no longer has to carry a bag.  But, he has to be within 15 minutes of the toilet.


The striving for pleasure and avoiding unpleasantness is difficult because of the forces of nature, the physiological changes in our body and the multiple relations with others.  Therefore, the  seeking of pleasure is extremely difficult to fulfill and our pursuit of pleasure is really a protection against suffering.  However suffering is a sensation that exists because we feel it.   Also, perhaps, most of our suffering within human relations is related to our society, with its restrictions, unfairness, and contradictions that are contrary to the satisfaction of  drives and needs?


Freud described man's drives for survival,  destruction and death while Murray identified man's needs for Affiliation (To draw near and enjoyably cooperate or reciprocate with an allied other. To please and win affection of a cathected object.  To adhere and remain loyal to a friend.) ;  Sex To form and further an erotic relationship.  To have sexual intercourse ) and Abasement (To accept injury blame, and criticism .  To blame, belittle or mutilate the  self.  To seek and enjoy pain, punishment, illness and misfortune).  Statistically, the behavior of roughly half the individuals in the United States are pursuing short-term pleasure for  long-term pain  with issues of obesity, diabetes, asthma, heart disease.  A great many are expressing aggression and hate directed both inward and outward as suicide and death rates multiply.  The pursuit of pleasure for the unhappy is  temporary and  has harmful long term consequences for  well-being.


Number of years ago nursing homes were established to provide  care for individuals unable to return home because of lack of family support and for those requiring nursing  assistance.  Family support was compromised because of mobility and separation between parents and children.  It was  not uncommon for children to leave home and search for their fortune elsewhere.  Other  living arrangements for seniors were established and became available that provided assistance for those requiring it.  When  mother was in her 90s, she wanted to remain  living at home rather than enter some senior citizen arrangement with all those old people.  Around that time, corporate America created a franchise that would send a minimum wage employee non medically licensed into the home to assist.They were there to meet one's affiliative needs.  Capitalism took advantage of the separateness and assisted many  seniors in meeting their affiliative needs.


Sex is necessary for  survival.  Developmentally, testosterone is the main hormone produced in the testicles and secreted by the testes.  The major effects of testosterone is that it promotes libido, aggressiveness and sexual desire.  The effects of testosterone are most pronounced during puberty. However, In the 10 Commandments , It's a sin to commit adultery.  In certain evangelical teachings, adolescents are taught not  to masturbate, watch pornography or have sexual intercourse.  The proud boys are not supposed to masturbate more than once a month.  Also, a woman is not to decide on whether or not to receive an abortion. These beliefs  are absurd.


Religious  teaching is supposed to restrict and repress the biological and psychological nature of man?   Well, we know how that has turned out with all the sexual scandals, with priests and ministers.  We even established laws regarding adultery and divorce.  We also know how that has turned out.  Could the so-called restrictions  of the sexual nature of man, result in psychological illness and dysfunction as well as the plethora of pornography ?  Religion has  equated sex and guilt needlessly for too many and it’s preposterous.  Thank goodness, Nevada has a realistic humanistic and rational approach to sex with its legal brothels.  A woman has a right to engage in sex and in a capitalistic society and appropriately charge for it. It's her body and the state  makes money on that business. For example, sex is pleasurable, natural and important for survival.  Franchise genital love bordello’s  without the guilt and shame.


Thou shall not kill and yet the largest monetary expenditure in our budget is for the military.  It's difficult to remember when our country was neither at war nor was providing military aid.  Eisenhower called this the Military-Industrial Complex.  What would happen to our economy if we did not have so much expenditure for guns but had a large expenditure for butter as Paul's Samuelson, the first American to win the Nobel Memorial prize in economic sciences, wrote  ?  Samuelson opposed the craziness of Milton Friedman's trickle-down economics. In any event, our country has no problem when it comes to producing  killing devices.


Our citizens have more guns, and kill others with domestic terrorism on the rise.  To kill plays an important role in our culture.  Yet we have hospice.  Hospice is supposed to provide emotional and virtual care for patients and families. The dying patient requires anesthetizing that masks the pain . Why  witness a loved one in that intoxicated state?  The purpose is? 


 Years ago, Jack Kevorkian was incarcerated.  This physician helped another with incurable illness in  assisted suicide.  This was against the law in Michigan.  Seems to me that it is much more humane to assist someone in their death than to anesthetize them. Why go on in that state?   If the quality of life is important , if none exists, then suicide is most humane. We put down our animals. Yes, suicide is against the law and we have suicide prevention. Recently,  a ride and tie friend had Lou Gehrig's disease.  This  bright athlete progressively wasted away and was confined to an electric powered mobile device.  Thank goodness he decided on assisted suicide, which was a great relief to his spouse as well.


We know that older societies have more realistic practices and do not allow archaic thinking to get in the way of sex and death of a loved one.  It's time, In our country, to realistically address sex rationally and without the association of guilt.  When sex is spectacular  between loved one's, that's terrific for that union.  When sex is not good, that union is generally not working well.  Death and dying also requires rational thought as that too is part of the life cycle. It's clear that our society is challenged and requires change. For example, franchise grief, loss and dignity while removing shame and guilt. Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them, said Leo Tolstoy.



Applying  the analogy of Freud's id, ego, and superego to our fragile experimental Republic, briefly , we find the following. The id is dominant with its irrational , unorganized, no values, no good, no morality   reservoir of  the psychic energy system of  the mental  provinces. It affects the climate change terror and  degree of incorporation, ingestion, consumption of toxic ingredients bringing disease,viruses deadly to the brain and body  along with  hateful, insidious,  aggressive, neurotic and murderous interpersonal interactions.  The ego's executive functions of rational reality testing in which thinking and beliefs are compromised and distorted in the areas of capitalism, religion , politics and humanistic values of love ,respect and integrity .  The  morality of  law, truth and fairness within the superego have been perverted by identification with rigid, sociopathic authoritarianism. The energy of the  id, its irrationality and difficulty with reality  proves to be prevailing all too often.


Reference


Freud, Sigmund.  Civilization and its Discontents.

Murray, Henry A.  Explorations in Personality.


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