I DON’T much believe the theories of Freud and Jung, those grandaddies of psychoanalysis. Do all men want to murder their father and have sex with their mother, as Freud’s Oedipus complex has it? Are all women gripped by rivalry towards their mother for the sexual attention of their father, as Jung’s corresponding Electra complex claims?
I doubt it. That doesn’t mean that psychotherapy is bunkum, it’s not; or that many of our dysfunctions aren’t found in that creepy old room named "Childhood" - they are. But theories simply remain theories unless there’s consistent proof to establish them as facts.
However, some parts of Freud’s philosophy ring very true, and do appear to have foundation in reality, specifically his thoughts on "the death drive" - the human compulsion towards self-destruction.
It’s always been with us. We’ve torn each other to pieces since we settled down and became "civilised"’. Isn’t that the irony of our species?
It seems, according to prehistory scholars, that as hunter-gathers we were a rather peaceful, egalitarian bunch, seldom getting into much more than minor conflict and happy to share resources. Once we built those first cities, though, we began to enslave and brutalise each other.
Those early city-builders were somewhat like Freud - simply inventing ideas and calling them "reality": why should a shiny yellow metal pulled from the ground confer power and wealth on the owner?
Read more by Neil Mackay
Perhaps it’s part of growing older, but as I reached mid-life I’ve felt humanity’s death drive throb around me in ways I find terrifying. If you know the........