Referring to Becker’s work, Irwin Hoffman proposes a different opinion on Freud’s view on the mortality. His main contention is that in “On Transience”, Freud demonstrated an existential viewpoint on mortality in an “unofficial” way (Hoffman, 1998).
According
to Hoffman, Freud discussed death in various stages of his life and his works, but
no clearly delineated and consistent theory of mortality s found in his work.
There are four major contexts: 1. viewpoint from the topographical model, 2. Viewpoint
related to the death instinct, 3. Viewpoint related to the Structural model,
4.his existential viewpoint stated “succinctly and informally” in “On
Transience”.
Hoffman
is critical of the 1st view in the topographical model, that
unconsciously “everyone is convinced of his own immortality”, stating that it
is contradictory to Freud’s own statement that the unconscious is totally
oblivious to time (Freud, 1914b, p187). Hoffman makes a point that if people cannot
imagine his mortality, he cannot imagine his immortality either as both
ideas equally involve time. Hoffman also raises an issue that Freud stated in
“On Narcissism” that the immortality of the ego is so threatened by reality,
which is also contradictory to Freud’s view of our inability to imagine our own
death”(Freud, 1915, p289) Hoffman then concluded “People can no more imagine-again in
the concrete sense of picturing it-time extended forever in their presence than
they can imagine time extended forever in their absense”(p.35)
Hoffman’s
contention is plausible both theoretically and experientially. As Becker’s work
suggested, many people point out that our mortality itself can be the object of
denial or negation. However, what is also important is that the way we handle
our own mortality is confound, and many desires or fantasies regarding our
death can be involved. Although Freud might not have been right in stating that
unconscious is unable to imagine mortal, isn’t it also possible for us to repress
our wish for immortality? Or isn’t it possible that our acceptance of mortality
can be more subtle and nuanced if we believe some type of after life? The way
that we handle our mortality can be thus varied and complicated.
What is most
meaningful in Hoffman’s discussion of Freud’s thanatology was the 4th
point that he made regarding “On Transience”. He states that Freud “informally”
discussed mortality in this essay. He stressed the meaning of doing mourning
work. Freud’s use of the expression of “foretaste of mourning” or “decease” is evocative. (“… the idea that all this beauty was
transient was giving these two sensitive minds a foretaste of mourning over its
decease….(p.359) While dealing with the loss of loved object, he was talking
about the death of oneself. Hoffman considers that “On Transience” practically
dealt with his own mortality. Although Freud discussed timelessness of the
unconscious he is introducing the temporality.
However, Hoffman stresses that Freud never went beyond
existential view. He supposes two states concerning our mortality; one is what
was demonstrated by the young poet, that the object loses its value if it
eventually disappears. The other attitude is that the value of an objects is
increased if it is transient. (readers might recognize that they are two
statements that Freud made in “On Transience” that we already saw.) Hoffman
stresses that our life is given meanings in contrast to the meaninglessness
upon our death. Meaning of our life and meaninglessness of our death are
experienced in a dialectical way and calls it “dialectical constructivist”
view.
