primitive belonging

I was criticized by someone for only elucidating my social ontology through ambition and subject egoism.

I use subject egoism because I thought that it was the most obvious, but there are so many examples of primitive belonging.

People might use words like savior-complex, for example, to denote subject altruism that goes deeper than just "fixing" someone in a relationship and seems to extend to a group. I had a patient who worked for a power company and identified strongly with being someone who brought people 'the light'.

There have also been a few schizophrenic altruists who have reminded me of the vampire myth in that they felt like they had to be invited in by a person or that their presence was intrusive. One of them had walked past the doorway several times before I figured out that he was looking for an invitation and he confirmed as much in conversation afterwards.

Additionally, as far as celebrity goes, there are many altruists who feel like their work should be a delight to others and who take criticism badly. It's not a question of their inadequate mastery of an instrument or mockery of their precision. It is that their being should be rejected or that they should be felt as "bad" in some way.  Thomas Hardy, for example, never wrote another novel after the reception of Jude the Obscure.


When there are so many examples of artists singing love songs, spiritual leaders like Ghandi, and people who need to be in the public eye but not for admiration of their beauty, their talent, or their virtue (ex. a talk show host), it's surprising to me that people have so little feeling for what I'm proposing.

Maybe it's not surprising that people in general don't have it, but that other psychoanalysts who have the personality as their object of study, don't have a feeling for it...

I don't mind the designation archetypal for my work either. The problem is that it usually works at the volar level where you have the semi-divine and a princess with an ogre or a wizard who shows up to help. There are other levels too, such as the anal, in which organized crime is a power structure that opposes normal institutions (the police and politics). On the side of altruists, you'll have subcultures that aren't so violent even though they might radically oppose the status quo or run against their values. Take John Waters as an example of a social pervert who gets off on alienating the average person's sensibilities rather than causing delight. Despite wanting to alienate them, he still has moments that are "cute" and silly and doesn't have egoistic interests in power, dominance, or control.

Anyway, here are some public thoughts from a private conversation.