Freud and the theory of mortality
As discussed earlier, Freud’s well-known
statement regarding mortality posits that “in the unconscious every one of us
is convinced if his own immortality” (Freud, 1915, p.289). He made this
statement in his paper “Thought on War and Death”(1915), which he wrote in the
same period as he wrote “On Transience”. There have been many criticisms toward
Freud’s statement and Ernst Becker is one of the most vocal opponents of this
view. In his well-known work “The Denial of Death” Becker maintained that it is
an essential nature of the human being to be anxious and fearful about his own
mortality. It is one of the main topics of philosophy that he calls “the
existential dilemma” where human beings are torn apart between their wish for
life and their bitter awareness of their own finitude. Becker’s general
contention is that Freud’s works are a devise to deny the fear of death.
Freud’s “non yielding” attitude as a whole entails the avoidance to deal with
fear of mortality with the help of a peculiar logic; causa sui, meaning
that human being ventures his limitation without success in a sort of
bootstrapping effort. Becker considers that Freud’s non-yielding attitude, and “Oedipal
project” are part of his attempts to challenge and overcome his own destiny. According
to Becker, Freud’s psychosexual theory is a displacement for the fear of dying.
Therefore, what is in the unconscious is not the castration anxiety but his
mortality, instead of immortality that Freud insists that the unconscious
believes. In that sense Freud’s postulation of the death instinct turns the
fear of death on its head and treat it as a manifestation of our biological tendency.
Becker, E (1974/2011) Denial of Death.
Souvenir Press Ltd.
However, Becker also discussed how
Freud dealt with his own death in a convoluted way and suggested that he might
have had a tacit desire to abandon everything and submit himself to some higher
order. That tacit wish was revealed in his fainting episodes he displayed in
front of Jung. Freud reportedly said “how sweet it might be to die…. “ when he
came to after the second fainting spell, which might have an indication that he
had an unconscious wish to yield to the destiny instead of fighting with it. Unfortunately,
Becker did not follow through with this line of thoughts and he never discussed
the essay “on transience” in which Freud discussed the issue of human destiny
in a more revealing way.
