Psychoanalysis and Social Ontology

I've decided that I need to publish a book on psychoanalytic theory to set the stage for my symptom reading work. I've combined a couple articles with some of the work of the work I've shared on this blog (and some new work as well) into something that looks like a book.

Most of the posts I write here are thinking out loud and not very polished. What I've included in the book on psychic bisexuality, the superego, the difference between the Oedipus complex and father complex, and the social ontology that goes along with the pre-oedipal imagos is much better written.

I'm looking to get some feedback on it.

Please write me and I'll send you a copy.

Ideology and the ego ideal pt. 1

In previous posts I have traced the development of the ego ideal and forms of perfection to the latency stage in which the ego ideal no longer concerns individual narcissism but social narcissism.

At the father complex the individual in pathology can be self-absorbed and concerned about his individual (irrational) guilt and not fulfilling his duties to family or the adult community life where he lives. In Oedipal or earlier stages the individual can be preoccupied with self-hate or inferiority in regards to his lack of success, status, or power or earlier superego conscience reactions.

In latency

[e]ach individual is a component part of numerous groups, he is bound by ties of identification in many directions, and he has built up his ego ideal upon the most various models. Each individual therefore has a share in numerous group minds- those of his race, of his class, of his creed, of his nationality, etc. (Freud, 1921, p. 129).

In regards to the conscience the individual forms a "morality of mores" as Nietzsche calls it that are based upon internalization of specific values and in regards to the ego ideal, instead of measuring his own success, power, or sins, the individual is able to get self-esteem from the success or power of the group he belongs to. For example, we all know those obsessed with their local sports teams who watch all the games and listen to the awful sports shows on the radio in which the most inane psychological speculations and emotions rivaling histrionic personality disorder arise. They can have their moods thoroughly affected by the team's performance and this illustrates the part it plays in the self-esteem system. 

It is also possible to witness political rhetoric that doesn't seek to reach people in regard to their individual narcissism (their own personal success, power, or duty) but which appeals to them, as Freud mentions, as a class. At least, when they are approached individually it isn't about persuading them this is the best option for their own self-interest, but instead the appeal to their group narcissism will be paired with an appeal to defused ego ideal fears. For example, the rhetoric around 'Obamacare' was about the 'nanny state' who wanted to make decisions for the individual, control him, become bigger and bigger and overwhelm him, and take away his freedom, on one hand. On the other hand, there was an appeal to class traditions and some ideologues would say thing like 

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN, R-TN (10/30/2013): Some people don't want to be sipping chardonnay from a crystal stem, they want to be drinking beer from a red Solo Cup.  You know?  Choices.

This exaltation of class traditions and pride for them that is above the measurement of individual success or power is a major route for ideology to affect the broad population of neurotics who have developed to latency. The inverse side is to externalize the defusions of the individual ego ideal onto the group mind one shares in. Thus, one does't experience the individual fear that someone will try to rob your body of a precious substance but instead: 

Life, liberty, and... the pursuit of unfettered access to Costco?

That's a right some residents in Bellingham, Wash., are lobbying for after droves of Canadians began flooding the Costco there, taking advantage of the Canadian dollar's buying power relative to the US currency.

According to the Daily Mail, the financial disparity means that Canadians can easily drive across the border (30 miles away), to stock up on goods that are more expensive back home -- namely cheap milk and fuel.  

The group's body, or its borders are invaded by an outside group that takes all the precious liquids. I think the cartoon representation, that is very phallic and worm-like, is important in affecting the individual just as Reich showed that the swastika's shape recalled sex and the primal scene that was externalized onto the Jewish groups who were charged with lascivious desires and 'raping the motherland'. 

I want to be careful not to say that 'pregenital' (pre-father complex) characters don't have any libidinal ties to the social. However, the issue is that they can't draw self-esteem or social narcissism from belonging, although they may defensively move hate or aloneness to the social. I hope to indicate the process here in the next post on the topic.   

As the lower classes endure the 'war on Christmas' that very cleverly targets their social narcissism, I hope my readers can feel my writing as an attack on their individual narcissism and be driven to rise to the occasion of giving more nuanced formulations to their concepts. Specifically, I hope you can see that psychoanalysis can no longer ignore politics and ideology but is required to study it and eventually overcome it in order for it to regain its prominence and, more importantly, make health the goal of social organization. 

  

Phallic Nuclear Complexes cont.

Sadism and masochism are what psychoanalytic theory has given us to work with in order to understand the partial drives around the nuclear complexes.

I've pointed out that Freud has contrasted the aggressive drive with the affectionate drive and what is needful here is for sadism and masochism to be broken down into common language that show the qualitative differences between the different libidinal positions.

Recently I've gained more and more of a sense of how pity is used by OEs and involves a definite sense of superiority over the pitied object. I believe that I've been under the spell of Nietzsche's use of pity in which that aspect isn't in the fore but rather the idea that the pain is really shared. I've associated the word with altruism without much sensitivity to its use in egoism.

It's possible that compassion emphasizes the state of feeling the other's pain and doesn't have the connotation of being above that pity does.

Additionally, along with vindictiveness found in the sadism of the the SE it's apparent that the OA can readily 'poke fun' at the father even though this doesn't undermine his loyalty or view that the the father is superior to him. Additionally, while the SA enjoys a fostering relationship to a father-substitute if there is a bad father introject which he or she chooses to serve (i.e. evil in psychoanalysis) then the devotion is undermined by secret thievery and fostering opposed by malicious gossip. The greek god Hermes shows this double aspect in his devotion as messenger for the gods and as god of thieves

Additionally, in the second symptom reading I pointed out that sexual masochism can appear very differently between the OE and SA poles. In the former I would agree with classical analysts that the pain is enjoyed while in the latter I'd agree with Reich that one doesn't get off on the pain and that 'bursting feelings' or relief from contractions against pleasurable expansion is the primary element.

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I remember hearing a self-psychologist speak about Freud's dream of a school of psychoanalysis in which the humanities receive increased importance through their links to the unconscious. The speaker proposed that for the first two years students would just read classic literature and that this would be the basis of their introduction to psychoanalysis. I felt moved by the idea but after looking at some of the examples of the interpretation of narratives by self-psychologists I was disappointed. This isn't to say that Kleinians or Lacanians have superior readings but that depth psychologies in general haven't done much for literary criticism.

The meeting point between the two must take place in common language. The depths can only be deepened by more attention to the surface. This is the insight that is the foundation of Hegel's work but which was only formalized in the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

We speak of understanding a sentence in the sense in which it can be replaced by another which says the same; but also in the sense in which it cannot be replaced by any other. (Any more than one musical theme can be replaced by another).

   In the one case the thought in the sentence is something common to different sentences; in the other, something that is expressed only by these words in these positions. (Understanding a poem.)…. Then has “understanding” two different meanings here?— I would rather say that these kinds of use of “understanding” make up its meaning, make up my concept of understanding.

   For I want to apply the word “understanding” to all this. (PI-531, 532).

            We react to the visual impression differently from someone who does not recognize it as timid (in the full sense of the word[1]). — But I do not want to say here that we feel this reaction in our muscles and joints and that this is the ‘sensing’.— No, what we have here is a modified concept of sensation… This is, of course, not simply a question for physiology. Here the physiological is a symbol of the logical…. It is almost as if there were a face there which at first I imitate, and then accept without imitating it (PI, p.179, emphasis mine)

In order to ‘explain’ it [the artwork] I could only compare it with something else which has the same  rhythm (I mean the same pattern). (One says ‘Don’t you see, this is as if a conclusion were being drawn’ or ‘This is as it were in a parenthesis’, etc…) (PI-527).   

The familiar physiognomy of a word, the feeling that it has taken up its meaning into itself, that it is an actual likeness of its meaning— there could be human beings to whom all this was alien. (They would not have an attachment to their words.)— And how are these feelings manifested by us?— By the way we choose and value words (PI, p.186).

Psychoanalysis must attract those who choose their words carefully and value them. Not because they wish to impress others, want to be admired for their intelligence, or do well on their SATs but because they are interested in people but in their schizoid anxiety around them they are forced into satisfying this interest through cultural mediation. (Ideally this would be in opposition to the egoistic motivations described and both poles would spur the individual on, but such strongly motivated individuals are rare and if they were the rule then there would be no need for schools). Psychoanalysis must attract the meek and give them both the education in theory and personal analyses to make them strong so they are no longer afraid to challenge the patriarchal forms of mechanistic and mystical thinking.   

******

The marxists, on the other hand, must begin to appeal to the disenfranchised political right. The political right has become laughable in its attempt to appeal to the uneducated and it will lose touch with this base as it changes to become more inclusive to minorities. Without the racial, religious, and class pride it sells to the poor on the right, the resentment and malice of the masses can be directed at the rich. Additionally, the reduction of strong managers by the increase of technology makes the egoists (the neurotics who have made it to latency development] hungry for something to proudly serve, just as it has increased their egotistical feeling that they could be famous or successful if it wasn't for nepotism through reality TV. These feelings along with the greed of the rich who haven't made the concessions to universal healthcare which every other advanced state has made could be enough to make the poor drop their allegiances to religion, race, and nation since these no longer offer the social narcissism they used to before a black president and PC values governed mass media.    

It's a pity that Nietzsche was only familiar with socialism and didn't understand how communism requires that money must be abolished; Marx also criticizes socialism and merely making the income of people more equal. Nietzsche, always has amazing insights and metaphors for class consciousness:   

40

The Lack of a noble Presence. Soldiers and their leaders have always a much higher mode of comportment toward one another than workmen and their employers. At present at least, all militarily established civilisation still stands high above all so-called industrial civilisation; the latter, in its present form, is in general the meanest mode of existence that has ever been. It is simply the law of necessity that operates here: people want to live, and have to sell themselves; but they despise him who exploits their necessity and purchases the workman. It is curious that the subjection to powerful, fear-inspiring, and even dreadful individuals, to tyrants and leaders of armies, is not at all felt so painfully as the subjection to such undistinguished and uninteresting persons as the captains of industry; in the employer the workman usually sees merely a crafty, blood-sucking dog of a man, speculating on every necessity, whose name, form, character, and reputation are altogether indifferent to him. It is probable that the manufacturers and great magnates of commerce have hitherto lacked too much all those forms and attributes of a superior race, which alone make persons interesting; if they had had the nobility of the nobly-born in their looks and bearing, there would perhaps have been no socialism in the masses of the people. For these are really ready for slavery of every kind, provided that the superior class above them constantly shows itself legitimately superior, and born to command by its noble presence! The commonest man feels that nobility is not to be improvised, and that it is his part to honour it as the fruit of protracted race-culture - but the absence of superior presence, and the notorious vulgarity of manufacturers with red, fat hands, brings up the thought to him that it is only chance and fortune that has here elevated the one above the other; well then - so he reasons with himself - let us in our turn tempt chance and fortune! Let us in our turn throw the dice! - and socialism commences (Gay Science- 40)   

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[1] Wittgenstein differentiates between a ‘sad expression’ a person may have and actually having a ‘feeling of sadness’ (PI, p.178). I understand the ‘sad expression’ to be etched into someone’s face as part of their general character just as someone could say, for example, that another person looks ‘bitchy’ though she isn’t in the moment getting upset with someone.   

   

The Nuclear Complexes and Superego Relations

The more symptom readings I perform the more I can abstract from the particular individual and see the same relational logic across many cases.

Lately I've been formulating the nuclear complex (i.e. oedipus, electra, antigone, and bellerophon) in this way:

in egoism the superego (in its ego ideal aspect) concerns self-respect

in eros or fusion with the father imago there is respect for the father-substitute or respect for the Other that allows a less rigid or 'cool' self-respect in the egoist

in defusion in phobos there is a loss of the cool self-respect when respect is taken away from the father imago

there is a new self-respect to be one's own father or be superior to the father-substitute

inferiority takes the form of self-contempt, self-hate, despising oneself etc.

castration anxiety is the death of the ego: death of one's image-ego or reputation at the phallic stage, death of the body-ego at the anal stage, death of the sense of self over time at the volar stage, and death of the self in the world at the auto-erotic (i.e. falling anxiety).   

In egoism the proto and deutero stages have their own partial drive of exhibition

When power is transcribed from the mother to the father and the ego ideal is formed in identification with the father there is the appearance of scopophilia in relation to the respect for the father.

When there is defusion from the father-substitute there is negative scopophilia in terms of thinking about the ascendancy of the rival father and his possession of the phallus.

EX. In the phallic Oedipal defusion/castration complex= anxiety concerning social humiliation or death of the image ego and negative scopophila or painful feelings about the rivals victory.

in altruism the superego (in its ego ideal aspect) concerns loyalty

in eros or fusion there is loyalty towards the father imago that allows for a loyalty to oneself or allowing one's own interests to matter

in defusion in phobos there is loss of loyalty to self when loyalty to the father imago is take away.    

there is a new loyalty to restore or save the father-substitute or to ensure his legacy that isn't a felt superiority but it is none the less implied in the feelings that one’s help is worth something.  

inferiority takes the form of being taken care of and feelings of inadequacy, insufficiency, unworthiness, being disappointing, etc.

castration anxiety is the perfection of the ego. Where the egoist worries about a social humiliation (i.e. death of one's reputation) the altruist worries that he won't live up to the expectations of others and will disappoint. 

In altruism the proto and deutero stages have their own partial drive of scopophilia

At ego ideal identification with the father there is the appearance of exhibitionism in relation to loyalty to the father.

When there is defusion from the father-substitute there is negative exhibitionism in terms of not wanting to be seen as potent, skilled, knowledgeable, or good (i.e. modesty) in combination with sadness at the father's loss or taking the esteem that belongs to him. There are worries that one is seen selfish, ungrateful, presumptuous,etc. at the phallic stage and becomes more comprehensive at earlier stages. Trying to reach out for any pleasure and any self-assertion becomes associated with the reduction of the father.

Ex. In the phallic Antigone defusion/castration complex > there is anxiety concerning one’s inadequacy or being disappointing or the unattainable perfection of the image ego and negative exhibitionism that means feeling selfish or ungrateful for getting esteem regarding one's potency because it belongs to the father.  

Subject Altruist/Antigone Complex Narcissistic Injury- The Hobbit

I saw The Hobbit.

I heard it wasn't as well received as the Lord of the Rings and I can see why. It is definitely more an altruist's movie than an egoist's (while the former series was more balanced). Instead of being able to identify with the human ranger who is secretly a prince in Lord of the Rings, in this one the dwarves represent subject egoism in a diminutive form that would probably turn the egoists off.  

Plus, instead of being a story of the triumph of the will and potency of the hero over a villain it is more random, filled with several different enemies and side plots, and luck and cleverness plays more of a role than will or head to head force.

I thought it had a lot of imagination and that whoever designed the monsters gave a lot of play over to his or her phantasy in its strongest, most visceral sense.

The reason I'm posting about it is that the relationship between Bilbo (the main Hobbit character) and Thorin (the leader of the Dwarves) really plays out the relationship towards self-assertion and the father imago in the subject altruist.  It isn't the Antigone complex but illustrating the potential narcissistic injury the SA can receive that would cause a defusion to it.

In several scenes in the film the main character is told, overhears, or senses that Thorin and the Dwarves think that this quest/fight is not a place that Bilbo belongs. He's just a hobbit (i.e. just a girl), he should be back at home enjoying his creature comforts (like a girl), etc. and this doesn't cause anger or resentment in him but instead you see him hang his head and feel like they are right. The egoist reacts with anger and the altruist with feeling abandonment or aloneness.

I've mentioned that Polynices not being allowed to take his turn to rule the city represents Antigone's injury at not receiving equal encouragement from the father imago to assert herself (either socially or sexually). This is the SA's narcissistic injury.

It isn't very hard to imagine a little girl out front before the pack here instead of Bilbo. However, as I've always stressed, psychic bisexuality isn't attached to anatomical sex and though SAs are usually women there is a good number of men who have more emphasis (or energy in) these drives than the others (and it's not just a question of the other drives of the libidinal positions being defended against; sometimes the other drives haven't been developed at all).

Of course Bilbo has enough spirit to not succumb to the narcissistic injuries and return home and instead he saves the day. Here is his justification for not leaving:

Bilbo: I know you doubt me, I know you always have, and you're right. I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my arm chair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong; that's home, and that's why I came, 'cause you don't have one...a home. It was taken from you, but I will help you take it back if I can. 

This leads to where the Thorin as the father imago embraces him with the words

'I have never been so wrong in all my life'

Very touching stuff for an altruist, but pretty wimpy for an egoist.

Phaedra Complex- homosexuality in the subject egoist

The complex takes its name from Greek mythology; Phaedra, wife of Theseus, fell in love with Hippolytus (Theseus' son born by either Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons or Antiope her sister).  

I've posted before that I've aligned the post-oedipal father complex with Freud's aim-inhibited sexuality that creates the drive to be a "grown-up", be "adult", or want to be regarded as responsible and fair by others. 

I've also posted that I saw Theseus' labors as reflecting the much more grandiose pre-oedipal labors of Heracles from the angle of Theseus representing the Oedipal acceptance of "castration" and being under his father's name. 

I hypothesized that before the moral father imago was internalized into the drive to 'be adult' that it's possible the father could interfere with it if he, not respecting the difference between the generations, was seductive towards his son. This seduction would form the fixation of adult moral man and boy that could explain why so many priests molest boys. They projectively identify with the father imago and force the trauma (attached to the self-representation) into someone else. 

Since doing work in the other complexes and seeing how Orestes can be read as a part of Electra and Polynices can be a part of Antigone it seems fitting to recognize that Phaedra can be a part of Theseus.     

Psychic Bisexuality and the Four Humours.

I've recently come across the four humours in two different contexts and I thought I'd share them and contrast them.

The first comes from Hegel's lecture notes included in the Philosophy of Mind. He writes:

"The main difference between these temperaments is based on whether a person gives himself up to the matter in hand or whether he is concerned about his own individuality. The former case occurs with the sanguine and phlegmatic temperaments, the latter with the choleric and melancholic"  (p. 53).

What is interesting here is that "concerned with individuality" can be taken in the introverted sense of imbuing one's work with one's own understanding of it. Jung uses introvert to refer to rationalist in Psychological Types and contrasts it to extrovert empiricism. The former wants to force reality to bend to laws and categories that are based upon human reason, while the latter eschews this but has his own value in finding examples that disprove the potentially Procrustean tendency of the rationalist and in collecting new data that can be systematized by the introvert. However, Hegel's meaning of "concern" can also mean what I have drawn attention to as the competition and desire to be regarded as the most skilled or most beautiful or tasteful. This means that the competition in egoism produces a wider interest in the work because one wants to be admired, as opposed to people who simply do the work and aren't compelled to investigate it more or be comprehensive because they don't get their self-esteem through being regarded as powerful.  

On the TV tropes site they draw attention to this side of ambition and desire to lead under the heading of extroversion.

As a note, Jung's use of Introvert and Extrovert is confused. He oscillates between introvert as anal-schizoid vs. Extrovert as genital-psycho-neurotic and Introvert as Adler's will to power vs. Extrovert as the hysteric wanting to be interesting and being other-focussed. Because he's not clear about it, no wonder it's misused.  

Extroversion at tvtropes.com seems to be used in its common language sense of social/high-profile vs. shy/loner/socially awkward.  

Choleric (yellow bile): Extroverted and task-oriented. Mainly seeks success and completion of tasks, and likes to be in charge of successful projects. Exhibits leadership, dominance, ambition, and charisma; also tactical and very passionate. On the flip side, highly prideful, easily angered or upset and may show arrogance, narrow-mindedness, obsession, and a Hair-Trigger Temper — but known for not showing any kinds of emotion otherwise. Rather than forgive, tendency to snap and move on while kicking to the curb; tendency to blame others. Likes to be independent and have control over others; could be The Bully or a Bad Boss if in charge. The most likely to be things such as The Leader, The Neidermeyer, Anti-Hero, or The Lancer. If The Smart Guy, it's by being crafty and cunning. If female, will be a fierce Lady of Waror a Tsundere.

·   Will often correspond with the Realist when in a Four Philosophy Ensemble.

I don't think the distinction of social/high-profile vs. shy/loner/socially awkward is helpful. It's more like Reich's distinction between genital vs. neurotic character and there is no reason why the high ideals and good manners that the tropers define the melancholic by can't translate into them being engaged in being social or having a high profile.

Back to Hegel...

"The sanguine person forgets himself in what he is doing, and more specifically in such wise that by virtue of the superficial versatility of his nature, he involves himself in a variety of affairs; the phlegmatic person, on the contrary, steadfastly applies himself to one object." (p. 53).

I think this is an important point. The tendency of he hysteric as the OA libidinal position, and not a term that seeks to encompass the the anti-sex potential of the OE compulsive along with the OA position, has been recognized for a long time to result in dilettantism. Jung has called it the impulse to be interesting. Hans Sachs has mentioned it under the type of person who creates the impression of knowledge but has only superficial understanding that comes from having identified with another person and imitating him or her. Although I have identified it as the masculine form of altruism and Sachs, in line with the misogyny of early analysts, attributed it to women and showed the tendency of them to have sexual relations with their educators. However, this also shows up with boys and male teachers in ancient Greece and there are many superficially educated men or male dilettantes. Wes Anderson and Rushmore comes to mind as an example. Nietzsche writes of the actor type frequently in his work and doesn't connect it to the feminine.

Looking at the Sanguine as the object altruist, the tv tropes site does connect it to the phlegmatic as people-oriented. If we drop their extroverted and introverted designations then people-oriented could be used as altruism. Task-oriented could also bring up the aspect of competition and power that I mentioned for Hegel's designation of "concerned with individuality". However, to do this I am obviously stretching their meaning. They are commenting on work specifically and not the ego drive relations. They write

Sanguine (blood): Extroverted and people-oriented. Generally likes socialization, fun crowds, and showcases of people's talents; highly opposed to dwelling on the past. Exhibits optimism, compassion, good cheer, a love of fun, enthusiasm. On the flip side, they may be impulsive, self-indulgent, lustful, Drama Queens, or even be a space case. Tendency to anger-burst, followed by "forgive and forget"; tendency to move on rather than blame anyone. Can often be a Keet, The Loonie, Spirited Competitor, Boisterous Bruiser, Blood Knight,The Pollyanna, Gentleman and a Scholar, Gossipy Hen, or Motor Mouth; or if female, a more plucky/outgoing Proper Lady, Kawaiiko, Genki Girl, or The Chick.

·   Will often correspond with the Optimist when in a Four Philosophy Ensemble.

Hegel's comment on the phelgmatic having one object I have related to the same Sachs article in the tendency of the SA to work for the egoism of a specific person or group. In the object drives the SA in proto-phallic defusion will be a relationship in which she will be the mother's missing phallus (ie supply the missing glory or recognition for the mother's phallic image-ego). The SA is the helper or assistant to the person's ambitions or career and rounds out the missing aspects of their character. In the ego drives the person may carry on the legacy of the father (-substitute) in devoting themselves to his work or interests. The SA at this stage still doesn't have aggression for her own self-interest but can be an aggressive defender of another. 

The tropers write:

Phlegmatic (phlegm): Introverted and people-oriented. The dreams and passions of this temperament are mainly the spread of kindness, forgiveness, and restoration of peace and harmony. Generally calm, rational, quiet, and reliable; but also docile and timid, lazy, and frequently hides all emotions (other than sympathy). Tends to be dependent on others, either by choice or because of insecurity. This temperament is a people person but sometimes expresses these traits in an awkward fashion. Tendency to perhaps brood temporarily, but then "forgive and forget"; tendency to blame self. Can often be Weak, but Skilled, The Heart, Wide-Eyed Idealist, or a more relaxed version of The Smart Guy and, if female, may be an Emotionless Girl, Yamato Nadeshiko, or more submissive Proper Lady.

   Will often correspond with the Apathetic when in a Four Philosophy Ensemble.

I think that the tv tropes connections are good for the most part and thus provide illustrations of psychic bisexuality but not all. In particular the designation of apathetic for phlegmatic doesn't sit well with me. It's the subject altruist who cares the most for people who is bound to flip into cynic or misanthrope as a reaction formation. Additionally, Reich's connection of the masochist to complaining is important here. The object altruist and the designation of melancholic will relate to an apathy about being too good for the men and community around her. Although there may be antagonism with men a la penis envy and complaining about sexuality in compulsive hysteria (i.e. men being dogs who only care about sex and untrustworthy) the self-love aspect takes them away from the world and into themselves and having pride means they don't get involved in things. Their sense of being attractive is enough self-esteem and if they aren't then the sense of their superior ability to judge beauty and their 'inner values' are enough. 

     

Hegel goes on...

"But in choleric and melancholic persons it is, as we have already indicated, the clinging to subjectivity that predominates; however, these two temperaments in turn distinguished from each other by the fact that in the choleric, versatility predominates, and in the melancholic, apathy; so that in this connection the choleric temperament corresponds to the sanguine and the melancholic to the phlegmatic" (p.53).

I think that is interesting in that the versatility of the OA comes from identification with many others which isn't in the SE. However, the general anal drive to omnipotence or omniscience in the SE does push them to become more comprehensive and subject egoism in general, and more so with schizoid features, will push towards self-sufficiency. Additionally, as I mentioned, the self-esteem from beauty compensates the OE and reduces her interests to her specialized "inner values" or whatever interest gives her an edge in regard to being desirable. 

As I said above, I don't think that all of their examples are correct, but in a general way the phenomenology is correct in the tv trope characterization. Also, the language is more accessible than Hegel's and Hegel's account gives no examples for someone new to characterology to sink their teeth into.  

Melancholic (black bile): Introverted and task-oriented. These characters can be extremely passionate and have high ideals. The intentions and longings found in this temperament are mainly the making and following of rules, good manners being among those rules. These characters focus on the world of internal thought and the best way to apply those thoughts. Independent, courteous, organized, highly refined, hard-working, analytical; but also a detached, neurotic,  obsessive perfectionist whose insanely high standards can lead to depression. Rather than forgive, tendency to withdraw and brood; tendency to blame others, self, and "all of the above" (sometimes all at once). Prone to gluttony or coveting. Often The Sneaky Guy or a very serious form of The Smart Guy. Can often hide in a sour shell and, if female, be a more brooding loner-type Ice Queen, Dark Action Girl, The Ophelia, Femme Fatale or Mysterious Woman. Those melancholics who have taken to lives of action can be the Byronic Hero or a Manipulative Bastard. I Work Alone may also come into play.

·   Will often correspond with The Cynic when in a Four Philosophy Ensemble.