Wednesday, March 5, 2014

subject altruist- fusion- defusion- primal scene- Frances Ha

I've posted about how The Hobbit illustrates the antigone complex in its fused form. The father-substitute makes Bilbo Baggins feel like isn't strong enough to be on the mission and he'll just hold them back or get hurt.

In defused form or in Antigone's castration complex there are proto-phallic or phallic-deutero regressions. On one hand the subject altruist can take the father's place and try to be the rescuer, defender, or generally sacrifice oneself for the object or others in general. On the other hand, independence can be continued but it requires a twin, helper, or someone to face it with (which of course isn't very independent but, all of the libidinal positions have their different senses of words like beauty, intelligence, and independence).

In the primal scene repetition there has long been a 'pseudo-stupidity' attached to the masochistic (echoistic) character. I've expressed that Freud's seen the primal scene as related to a form of the epistemophillic drive and it seems clear that a reaction formation can occur that makes digging for secrets and understanding become the opposite of not understanding anything.

I think the film Frances Ha by Noah Baumbach has a great eye for the primal scene loss of one's twin or helper and also the pseudo-stupidity of the character. The title of the film itself comes from the titular character who putting her name on her mail box and choosing to fold over the last name instead of folding over her first name.

I want to write more about it, but for whoever is having a hard time understanding passive-altruism the film provides a very subtle presentation of it.

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