Subliminal Dimension in Freud’s Magniloquence *

An Observation on Freudian Concepts in Relevance to Time

By:

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal,

Asst. Professor, Department of Social Work,

Christ University, Bangalore, India.

Contact:

ajith.fredjeev@christuniversity.in

* A paper written on January’ 2010 and presented at the National Conference on Sexuality and Psychology, organized by the Dept. of P.G. Studies and Research in Psychology, S.D.M. C., Ujire. Abstract of the paper published in Department’s annual magazine

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 1

fredjeev@gmail.com

+91 9449613385

Abstract:

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 2

‘Subliminal Dimension in Freud’s Magniloquence’ by Ajith

Fredjeev Dinakarlal1

"Analyze any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the

sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to

which life owes its perpetuation." Sigmund Freud.

What makes every human being different from each other

calling him/her for uniqueness? What makes sex a preference

so close to the appetite one has? What gives him/her or as

the case may be limits to one’s choices in matters of

selection? Sex, sexuality and sensuality whether it is an

art to be evoked or a science attempted to be comprehended,

condensed and channelized in the labs for various social,

psychological, educational and legal institutions as a means

to have a control over its existence, drives us to the roots

of its incubation, an area that needs to be updated and

constantly upgraded with the changing time and scenario to

understand its impact on contemporary psycho-social issues.

This delicately soft subject taken for analysis and

interpretation turns sensitive when it overlaps with the

sharp thrust of violence-the emergence of the paradoxical

‘pleasure and pain’ conundrum. One needs to look back into

the past as one sees the changes in the contemporary

scenario in order to contemplate what it is likely leading

towards in the future and take measures to comprehend

defenses before its influences may be felt and the scars

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 3

merge to ensure its permanent presence in the psyche and the

society at large.

The approaches involved in psychological studies in this

line may differ yet the need for a multi-dimensional

approach by adding a socio-philosophical perspective stands

valid considering the influence of sex, sexuality and

sensuality on contemporary psycho-social issues and its

emergence as a means to find a way out of arising issues

that is felt yet is to be scientifically condensed and

logically recorded for understanding and analyzed thus

making way for the need for comprehension and

interpretation.

This paper proposes to ‘transcend a language’ hovering upon

‘emerging patterns’ from an ‘uncouthed ideology’ from the

Freudian era relating it to empirical pragmatic views so far

reached. A critical analysis emerging from the marriage of

ideas and autonomy of reasoning, this paper also seeks to

find a cross-sectional application of various disciplines in

understanding the true nature behind the conception of

rhetoric theories that changed the world and how it thought.

Have we changed much from these barbaric allegations? Or has

it become a part of our secret fantasy chamber as we wear a

civilized mask? The ever prolonged war between nature and

nurture! Though the deliberation is not to demystify the

issue nor pontificate the solution, as it might seem only

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 4

too obvious of reaching bigotry yet again, this paper only

aims at rendering a perception into a wider understanding of

a narrowed thought in our subliminal world.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 5

Genesis

There was more whispered and less talked about on sex before

Sigmund Freud; we begin this exploration from a time when

experimentation was justifiably prevalent, amidst rampant

continental pandemonium; a time when the deadly holocaust,

the aryan supremacy and apartheid prevailed; a time when

lines were drawn promoting segregation, distancing human

from a human; thick lines cut to discriminate, thicker walls

built to distance people more than continents ever could-

everything and anything done, an indication of social

conflicts. A time when the unknown became exotic and the

world was giving in to the spread of information and

knowledge-thanks to the developing print media and the think

tank that poured in their knowledge-however limited it was.

Pragmatic views then were as common as plagiarism itself;

when people were hovering to devour what was strewn than

question, reflect or respond to ideas before adapting it.

Evident discontent amongst authors proves this later-

discovered-reality; and in a time when the wild Wild West

was accepted, this was probably only trivial.

When one Social Scientist had a concept, there was another

in the near corridor adding more and furnishing a newer,

better theory only to wait for another from the corridor to

emerge with yet another. Science and myth were rebalanced;

when science is scarce, myth flourishes and vice versa; this

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 6

see-saw effect is viewable even in today’s scenario with a

never ending battle fought between religious bigotry and

scientific truth… yet precision is seldom achieved either

way. ‘Scientific truth’ once again questioned with

relocating theories that were once held true often going

haphazardly wrong like the disappearance of planet Pluto

from our school books; a time when religion has its last

laugh. Myths too have taken its toil with cases like the

Pope apologizing on behalf of the holy church for

humiliating Copernicus; a time when science got its dual

settled its way.

‘Sex’-the seed to creation, they say, begins from the mind.

‘The mind’ as explored that gives a conceptual relevance

even today, emerging from the western world, has colonized

our thoughts ever since and further hammered-in with our

pedagogical endeavour. A perpetual emersion of such

understanding can be traced to Freud’s table from where the

attempt to demystify the understanding of the concept of the

mind rolled. In the passage that follows, an attempt has

been made to explore a congruent perception that set the

foundation for the exploration of the mind, that led to the

incorporation and manipulation of the same at various

quarters including most of the concepts that Freud himself

had built, to understand avenues like sex, aggression and

emerging conflicts in the adult world; this very foundation

upon which many eventual theories were directed or condensed

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 7

then and in due course of time and space, has been taken as

an area to be further scrutinized taking into account

certain other significant elements that have been missed yet

could have been magnified earlier, eliciting probably a

subliminal view of Freud then that led to the emergence of

many empirical opinions. This barbaric allegation within a

civilized masking comes with an archaeological digging for

facts, sequence and contexts that can be witnessed sans

dispute when juxtaposed with an uncouthed ideology prevalent

at that time. The sequence thus synthesized:

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 8

The psychological perspective (Thought 1)

The Topography of Mind

Freud’s topographical model represents his “configuration”

of the mind.

According to Freud, there are three levels of consciousness:

Conscious (small): this is the part of the mind that holds

what you’re aware of. You can verablize about your

conscious experience and you can think about it in a

logical fashion

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 9

Preconscious (small-medium): this is ordinary memory. So

although things stored here aren’t in the conscious,

they can be readily brought into conscious

Unconscious (enormous): Freud felt that this part of the

mind was not directly accessible to awareness. In part,

he saw it as a dump box for urges, feelings and

ideas that are tied to anxiety, conflict and pain.

These feelings and thoughts have not disappeared and

according to Freud, they are there, exerting influence

on our actions and our conscious awareness.  This is

where most of the work of the Id, Ego, and Superego

take place1

Trichotomous Theory of the Self

[The id is] . . . a chaos, a cauldron of seething

excitement. We suppose that it is somewhere in direct

contact with somatic processes, and takes over from them

instinctual needs and gives them mental expression, but we

cannot say in what substratum this contact is made. These

instincts fill it with energy, but it has no organisation

and no unified will, only an impulsion to obtain satisfaction for the

instinctual needs, in accordance With the pleasure-principle. The laws of

logic-above all, the law of contradiction-do not hold for

processes in the id. Contradictory impulses exist side by

side without neutralising each other or drawing apart; at

1 www.L8-3TopographyMindIceberg.html

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 10

most they combine in compromise formations under the

overpowering economic pressure towards discharging their

energy. There is nothing in the id which can be compared to

negation, and we are astonished to find in it an exception

to the philosophers' assertion that space and time are

necessary forms of our mental acts. In the id there is

nothing corresponding to the idea of time, no recognition of

the passage of time, and (a thing which is very remarkable

and awaits adequate attention in philosophic thought) no

alteration of mental processes by the passage of time.

Conative impulses which have never got beyond the id, and

even impressions which have been pushed down into the id by

repression, are virtually immortal and are preserved for

whole decades as though they had only recently occurred.

They can only be recognised as belonging to the past,

deprived of their significance, and robbed of their charge

of energy, after they have been made conscious by the work

of analysis, and no small part of the therapeutic effect of

analytic treatment rests upon this fact.

It is constantly being borne in upon me that we have made

far too little use of our theory of the indubitable fact

that the repressed remains unaltered by the passage of time.

This seems to offers us the possibility of an approach to

some really profound truths. But I myself have made no

further progress here.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 11

Naturally, the id knows no values, no good and evil, no morality. The

economic, or, if you prefer, the quantitative factor, which

is so closely bound up with the pleasure-principle,

dominates all its processes. Instinctual cathexes seeking

discharge, that, in our view, is all that the id contains.

It seems, indeed, as if the energy of these instinctual

impulses is in a different condition from that in which it

is found in the other regions of the mind. It must be far

more fluid and more capable of being discharged, for

otherwise we should not have those displacements and

condensations, which are so characteristic of the id and

which are so completely independent of the qualities of what

is cathected.

As regards a characterization of the ego, in so far as it is

to be distinguished from the id and the super-ego, we shall

get on better if we turn our attention to the relation

between it and the most superficial portion of the mental

apparatus; which we call the Pcpt-cs (perceptual-conscious)

system. This system is directed on to the external world, it mediates

perceptions of it, and in it is generated, while it is

functioning, the phenomenon of consciousness. It is the sense-

organ of the whole apparatus, receptive, moreover, not only of

excitations from without but also of such as proceed from

the interior of the mind. One can hardly go wrong in regarding the

ego as that part of the id which has been modified by its proximity to the

external world and the influence that the latter has had on it, and which serves

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 12

the purpose of receiving stimuli and protecting the organism from them, like

the cortical layer with which a particle of living substance

surrounds itself. This relation to the external world is

decisive for the ego. The ego has taken over the task of representing the

external world for the id, and so of saving it; for the id, blindly striving to gratify

its instincts in complete disregard of the superior strength of outside forces,

could not otherwise escape annihilation. In the fulfilment of this

function, the ego has to observe the external world and

preserve a true picture of it in the memory traces left by

its perceptions, and, by means of the reality-test, it has

to eliminate any element in this picture of the external

world which is a contribution from internal sources of

excitation. On behalf of the id, the ego controls the path of access to

motility, but it interpolates between desire and action the

procrastinating factor of thought, during which it makes use

of the residues of experience stored up in memory. In this way

it dethrones the pleasure-principle, which exerts undisputed sway over the

processes in the id, and substitutes for it the reality-principle, which promises

greater security and greater success.

The relation to time, too, which is so hard to describe, is

communicated to the ego by the perceptual system; indeed it

can hardly be doubted that the mode in which this system

works is the source of the idea of time. What, however,

especially marks the ego out in contradistinction to the id,

is a tendency to synthesise its contents, to bring together

and unify its mental processes which is entirely absent from

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 13

the id. When we come to deal presently with the instincts in

mental life, I hope we shall succeed in tracing this

fundamental characteristic of the ego to its source. It is

this alone that produces that high degree of organisation

which the ego needs for its highest achievements. The ego

advances from the function of perceiving instincts to that

of controlling them, but the latter is only achieved through

the mental representative of the instinct becoming

subordinated to a larger organisation, and finding its place

in a coherent unity. In popular language, we may say that the ego

stands for reason and circumspection, while the id stands for the untamed

passions.

The proverb tells us that one cannot serve two masters at

once. The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to

serve three harsh masters, and has to do its best to

reconcile the claims and demands of all three. These demands

are always divergent and often seem quite incompatible; no

wonder that the ego so frequently gives way under its task.

The three tyrants are the external world, the super-ego and

the id. When one watches the efforts of the ego to satisfy

them all, or rather, to obey them all simultaneously, one

cannot regret having personified the ego, and established it

as a separate being. It feels itself hemmed in on three

sides and threatened by three kinds of danger, towards which

it reacts by developing anxiety when it is too hard pressed.

Having originated in the experiences of the perceptual

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 14

system, it is designed to represent the demands of the

external world, but it also wishes to be a loyal servant of

the id, to remain upon good terms with the id, to recommend

itself to the id as an object, and to draw the id's libido

on to itself. In its attempt to mediate between the id and

reality, it is often forced to clothe the Ucs. commands of

the id with its own Pcs. rationalizations, to gloss over the

conflicts between the id and reality, and with diplomatic

dishonesty to display a pretended regard for reality, even

when the id persists in being stubborn and uncompromising.

On the other hand, its every movement is watched by the

severe super-ego, which holds up certain norms of behaviour, without regard

to any difficulties coming from the id and the external world; and if these norms

are not acted up to, it punishes the ego with the feelings of tension which

manifest themselves as a sense of inferiority and guilt. In this way,

goaded on by the id, hemmed in by the super-ego, and

rebuffed by reality, the ego struggles to cope with its

economic task of reducing the forces and influences which

work in it and upon it to some kind of harmony; and we may

well understand how it is that we so often cannot repress

the cry: "Life is not easy." When the ego is forced to

acknowledge its weakness, it breaks out into anxiety:

reality anxiety in face of the external world, normal

anxiety in face of the super- ego, and neurotic anxiety in

face of the strength of the passions in the id.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 15

And now, in concluding this certainly rather exhausting and

perhaps not very illuminating account, I must add a warning.

When you think of this dividing up of the personality into

ego, super-ego and id, you must not imagine sharp dividing

lines such as are artificially drawn in the field of

political geography. We cannot do justice to the

characteristics of the mind by means of linear contours,

such as occur in a drawing or in a primitive painting, but

we need rather the areas of colour shading off into one

another that are to be found in modern pictures. After we

have made our separations, we must allow what we have

separated to merge again. Do not judge too harshly of a

first attempt at picturing a thing so elusive as the human

mind. It is very probable that the extent of these

differentiations varies very greatly from person to person;

it is possible that their function itself may vary, and that

they may at times undergo a process of involution. This

seems to be particularly true of the most insecure and, from

the phylogenetic point of view, the most recent of them, the

differentiation between the ego and the superego. It is also

incontestable that the same thing can come about as a result

of mental disease. It can easily be imagined, too, that

certain practices of mystics may succeed in upsetting the

normal relations between the different regions of the mind,

so that, for example, the perceptual system becomes able to

grasp relations in the deeper layers of the ego and in the

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 16

id which would otherwise be inaccessible to it. Whether such

a procedure can put one in possession of ultimate truths,

from which all good will flow, may be safely doubted. All

the same, we must admit that the therapeutic efforts of

psycho-analysis have chosen much the same method of

approach. For their object is to strengthen the ego, to make

it more independent of the super- ego, to widen its field of

vision, and so to extend its organisation that it can take

over new portions of the id. Where id was, there shall ego

be.2

In short:

ID-a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy constantly

striving to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and

aggress.

The id operates on the pleasure principle: If not constrained by reality, it seeks

immediate gratification.

Ego-the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality

that, according to Freud, mediates the demands of the id,

superego, and reality.

2 An Outline of Psychoanalysis [1940], translated by James Strachey. 

N.Y.:  Norton. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis [1933],

translated by W. J. H. Sprott.  N.Y.:  Norton, www.freudselection.html

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 17

The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id’s desires in ways that

will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Superego-represents internalized ideals and provides

standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future

aspirations.3

Quite parallel to many other thinkers, Freud’s work is

complex and not completely consistent. His thinking evolved

over the course of 50 years, and in due course he has often

changed or rejected parts of his earlier thinking.

Moreover, many later parts of his work, when he was old,

demoralized, depressed and mortally ill, were expressed

quite schematically. Broadly speaking, Freud’s work traces

the relationship among a number of different systems or

structures of the human psyche subtly hinting at the society

at a large.

The psychological perspective (Thought 2)

The Emerging Pattern (at a literary level)

3 Halberstadt, Max. “Sigmund Freud.” 1921. Freud Conflict and Culture

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 18

1. Is there an emerging link when mentioning the

‘Unconscious’ as something that demands us to be

shameful of, guilty, kept under control and to be

admonished and the ‘Id’?

2. Is there an emerging link when mentioning the

‘Conscious’ as something that shapes our thoughts and

perceptions and the ‘Superego’?

3. Is there an emerging link when mentioning the

‘Preconscious’ as something ‘in-between’ with stored

knowledge and memories that mediates between the

Conscious and the Unconscious and the ‘Ego’ that

mediates between Id and Superego?

4. Is Freud trying to say the same thing he said while

explaining the ‘Topography of the mind’ whilst

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 19

explaining the ‘Trichotomous theory of the self’? Is

this in Freud’s own terminology a “repetition

compulsion”? (after 27 years)

5. Is this a subdued display of magniloquence?

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 20

Insight into a parallel thought: The sociological

perspective (Thought 3)

The Uncouthed Ideology

The term race or racial group usually refers to the

categorization of humans into populations or groups on the

basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. The

physical features commonly seen as indicating race are

salient visual traits such as skin color, cranial or facial

features and hair texture.4

Summary of different biological definitions of race

Biological definitions of race (Long & Kittles, 2003) et al.

Concept Reference Definition

Essentialist

Hooton(1926)

"A great division of mankind,characterized as a group by the sharing ofa certain combination of features, whichhave been derived from their commondescent, and constitute a vague physicalbackground, usually more or less obscuredby individual variations, and realizedbest in a composite picture."

Taxonom Mayr "An aggregate of phenotypically similar

4 Statement on Biological Aspects of Race by American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Bamshad, Michael and Steve E. Olson. "Does Race Exist?", Scientific American Magazine (10 November 2003)

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 21

ic (1969)

populations of a species, inhabiting ageographic subdivision of the range of aspecies, and differing taxonomically fromother populations of the species."

Population

Dobzhansky (1970)

"Races are genetically distinct Mendelianpopulations. They are neither individualsnor particular genotypes, they consist ofindividuals who differ genetically amongthemselves."

Lineage Templeton(1998)

"A subspecies (race) is a distinctevolutionary lineage within a species.This definition requires that a subspeciesbe genetically differentiated due tobarriers to genetic exchange that havepersisted for long periods of time; thatis, the subspecies must have historicalcontinuity in addition to current geneticdifferentiation."5

The Five Human Races

Ethnologists have generally divided human beings into five

distinct classes. But although the primitive types are well

and strongly marked, yet from amalgamation, climatic

influences, and various other causes, the sharp lines are in

many instances almost obliterated. We append a description

of the different races as they appear in their pure and

unmixed condition.

5 Race (classification of human beings) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.htm

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 22

The Five Human Races, Ethiopian. American. Caucasian.

Mongolian. Esquimaux.

The Black or Negro Race

The Negro, proper, inhabits all that part of Africa from

Senegal along the coast of Guinea south of the Equator, to

the 16th degree of latitude. Voluntarily the Negro never leaves this

country, but, from being carried into involuntary servitude, millions of

this people are now to be found in America, the West Indies,

and other parts of the world. Their most striking

characteristics are the jetty blackness of skin, black,

crisp, curly hair, low forehead, high cheek-bones, flat,

broad nose, broad and small chin, strong, white teeth. The

skull is deficient in all the higher intellectual

manifestations.

The Hottentots and Caffres of South Africa, though black,

and generally classed with Negroes, differ from them on many

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 23

points. The Negroes are often called Ethiopians. This is a

mistake; the Ethiopians were the inhabitants of the Upper

Nile and Abyssinia, and though a dark, were by no means a

black race. The Negroes have no written language; the Arabic

is generally used for all business purposes.

The Red or Indian Race

This race occupied the whole of the two Americas and the

neighboring islands; although there were manifest

differences in the people of the North and those of the

South. The North American Indians are tall and straight,

forehead low and broad, nose aquiline, eyes black and deeply

set, full lips, skin a warm, coppery red, hair long, black,

and straight. They show rather a lack of disposition than of

ability to become proficient in the arts of agriculture and

manufacture.

White or Caucasian Race

The Caucasian race occupies all of Europe, Western Asia,

Australia, and the greater part of America. Skin varying

from a pure white to a rich brown, hair all shades, from

blonde to black, beard full, soft and flowing, nose high and

thin, lips medium. Surpass all other races in ability to comprehend and

work out both mental and physical problems. This race is gradually but surely

dominating the habitable part of the globe.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 24

Yellow or Mongolian

This race dwells principally in the East Indies, China,

Japan, and the adjacent islands. In person they are usually

small, slender, and remarkable for their agility and

skillful manipulation; excelling in taste and execution,

rather than invention. Skull small and narrow, with rather

flat sides, forehead low and retreating, skin a yellowish

tawny, eyes narrow and almond-shaped, hair long, black, and

straight, beard very scanty.

The Samoids, Esquimaux, and Tartars

These people are all supposed to have had a common origin,

and their differences are attributed to local habitation or

other accidental circumstances. They are short in stature,

but sturdy, foreheads low, eyes narrow, nose flat, hair

black and straight. In many respects they closely resemble

the Mongolian race. The Tartars show capacity for

improvement, but the Esquimaux, owing to their painful

struggle for mere existence, have little opportunity to

exhibit their mental abilities. They are docile and kind.6

With that being said, let us take in particular, for

contextual relevance, the portrait of the whites and the

blacks from some literary sources.

6 www.The Five Human Races.htm

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 25

Laurens van der Post's book, The Dark Eye in Africa, was

published in 1955 and contains elements of what is

articulated here.

“I suppose black is the natural colour of what is strange

and secret in the human spirit. It is the uniform of the

unknown. Somehow 'Mlangeni through his blackness and his

nearness to nature, was a personification of those aspects

of the Kurt Hansen's blond crew which were hidden, or estranged

from them; a living mirror wherein they saw the dark face of all that was rejected

and out of reach in them themselves.

Unfortunately therefore since the process of acquiring self-knowledge is by no

means painless or without humiliation their natural curiosity had an undertow of

suspicion and apprehension. It seems an a priori condition of our

so-called success in civilizing ourselves that what is to be

rejected must in itself be proved to be something

discreditable. Consequently the crew were both attracted and

repulsed by 'Mlangeni. Not, I stress, because of anything in

his character but because unknowingly they associated him

with their own.7

In Charles Darwin's most controversial book, The Descent of

Man, he made strong suggestions of racial differences and

European superiority. In Darwin's view, stronger tribes of

humans always replaced weaker tribes. As savage tribes came

in conflict with civilized nations, such as England, the7 Laurens van der Post, The Hunter and the Whale, pp.88-89

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 26

less advanced people were destroyed. Nevertheless, he also

noted the great difficulty naturalists had in trying to

decide how many "races" there actually were (Darwin was

himself a monogenist on the question of race, believing that

all humans were of the same species and finding race to be a

somewhat arbitrary distinction among some groups).

Consider, for instance, the following excerpt: "We thus see

that many of the wilder races of man are apt to suffer much

in health when subjected to changed conditions or habits of

life, and not exclusively from being transported to a new

climate. Mere alterations in habits, which do not appear

injurious in themselves, seem to have this same effect; and

in several cases the children are particularly liable to

suffer. It has often been said that man can resist with impunity the greatest

diversities of climate and other changes; but this is true only of the civilized

races."8

Post-Exodus

Makgoba (1997) clearly identifies the motives behind the

interest of this larger world of non-Africans as follows:

"Knowledge about African people is always political, useful

in maintaining intellectual neo-colonialism, propagates

Western culture, helps generate and perpetuate an

inferiority complex (in Africans), fosters individualism

8 Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, Chapter 7 - On the Races of Man.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 27

amongst Africans, disrupts organisation and unity in the

(African) community because there is inherent fear of a

united, organised Afrocentric community, or a combination of

all of the above. In short, we are (regarded to be) a people

who can only succeed, realise our potential and destiny by

being controlled, policed, nursed and guided by Europeans.

We are (therefore) incapable of being masters of our own

destiny"

Through force, Western education and missionary

proselytization, the colonialists subordinated traditional

African authority and the values and norms of African

communalism in the minds of Africans. This new anti-African

script, argues Nyasani (1997), remains deeply imbeded in the

minds of contemporary Africans to the point that they:

"have adopted and assimilated wholesale whatever the West

has to offer. The end result is not just a cultural betrayal

but a serious case of self-dehumanization and outright self-

subversion both in terms of dignity and self-esteem. Indeed

there is no race on earth that abhors its own culture and is

so easily prepared to abdicate it and flirt with

experimental ideas which promise no more than vanity, to a

large extent, like the African race.... Africa is simply

overwhelmed and decisively submerged by the never-receding

tide of cultural imperialism"9

9 Lassiter, J. E. 1999. African Culture and Personality: Bad Social Science, Effective Social Activism, or a Call to Reinvent Ethnology?

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 28

“I think human beings, and the whole of the external world,

is a mirror in which we see the aspects of ourselves which

are hidden. And I am convinced in my own mind, that this is

the psychological origin of color prejudice. It is blaming

on the dark skin the thing that we have done to the dark

person within ourselves.

There is an image which always comes back to me from

childhood. As a child we had a lot of baboons about the

place. I put, we often put, a mirror in front of the

baboons. The baboons would look in the mirror. Then they

would look behind the mirror to see if there was another

baboon and there wasn't. Then they looked again into the

mirror. And in the end they could not accept that it was

their face looking back at them and they would get so angry

they picked up the mirror and smashed it.

I think this is what the person who will not admit this

rejected self of himself, this is what he does to the black

or the dark person of the world. This, I submit to you, is

color prejudice.” Laurens van der Post10

Overlapping the parallels: The psycho-social perspective

(Thought 4)

Emerging Pattern II (at a figurative level)

10 www.Psychological Origins of Racial Prejudice, Laurens van der Post, SF, 10-61.htm

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 29

Use the words used to denote the unconscious and

replace it for the terms used to describe the people of

Africa, it needs no change. Is this coincidental?

Use the words used to denote the conscious and replace

it for the terms used to describe the whites, it needs

no change. Is this coincidental too?

The ego or “I” as Freud replaces it with quite often,

is it a figurative of his own struggle between the

conceptual acceptance of ideologies existing amidst a

continental divide? (perhaps a ‘Freudian Slip’ in his

own words)

Does the smaller tip of the iceberg symbolize Europe

and the larger hidden part-the continent of Africa and

the person facing an often conflict to belong to the

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 30

conditional upper crust and lusting for the generous

unconditional dark abyss lying submerged in the

symbolic mystery of the waters yet unable to move

either way and enduring the never ending battle in the

psyche as a consequence?

Is Freud trying to give us his own philosophy in

figurative like the proverbial ‘let he who has ears,

hear’ especially with the fact that his books were

burnt, his life and those of his dear ones were at

threat and his ideas shocked masses?

Have his interpretations shaped us or have we shaped

his interpretations within our limited understanding of

multi-dimensional linkages we can give to figurative

speech?

Are we reading a deeply philosophical social text in

our attempt to understand the world of sexuality and

aggression as well?

Has Freud taken an over-turn with deep resonance or is

he a subtle rebel being diplomatically magniloquent

with metaphors?

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 31

Could a social evil be a foundation for a psychological

angel?!

The Eventual Consequence

The Holocaust was the destruction of European Jewry by the

Nazis through an officially sanctioned, government-ordered,

systematic plan of mass annihilation. As many as six million

Jews died, almost two-thirds of the Jews of Europe. Although

the Holocaust took place during World War II, the war was

not the cause of the Holocaust. The war played a role in

covering up the genocide of the Jewish people. How could

this have happened? The answers can be found by

understanding how violence of this magnitude can evolve out

of prejudice based on ignorance, fear, and misunderstanding

about minority groups and other groups who are different

from us.

It is only when these attitudes and behaviors are manifested

in the extreme that genocide can occur. Genocide is the last

step in a continuum of actions taken by those who are

prejudiced. The first step of this continuum is

discrimination and treating certain groups of people

differently. The second step is isolation, such as the

physical segregation of minorities in ghettos or setting up

separate schools. The third step is persecution, followed by

dehumanization and violence. Genocide: the deliberate and

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 32

systematic extermination of a group of people is the

ultimate expression of human hatred.

The Process of Victimization

Stereotyping

A "stereotype" is a generalization about a person or group

of persons. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or

unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to

make fair judgments about people or situations. In the

absence of the "total picture," stereotypes in many cases

allow us to "fill in the blanks." Our society often

innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these

stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and

persecution when the stereotype is unfavorable. In many

cases, these stereotypical generalizations are reasonably

accurate. Yet, in virtually every case, we are resorting to

prejudice by ascribing characteristics about a person based

on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts. By

stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain

characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about

persons who are members of groups with which we have not had

firsthand contact.

Discrimination

When we judge people and groups based on our prejudices and

stereotypes and treat them differently, we are engaging in

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 33

discrimination. This discrimination can take many forms. We

may create subtle or overt pressures which will discourage

persons of certain minority groups from living in a

neighborhood. Women and minorities have been victimized by

discrimination in employment, education, and social

services. We may shy away from people with a history of

mental illness because we are afraid they may harm us. Women

and minorities are often excluded from high echelon

positions in the business world. Many clubs have restrictive

membership policies which do not permit Jews, African-

Americans, women, and others to join.

In some cases, the civil and criminal justice system has not

been applied equally to all as a result of discrimination.

Some studies indicate that African-Americans convicted of

first degree murder have a significantly higher probability

of receiving a death penalty than whites convicted of first

degree murder, for example. When political boundaries have

been drawn, a process known as "gerrymandering" has often

been used to provide that minorities and other groups are

not represented in proportion to their population in active

participation in the political process.

Racism

Anthropologists and other scientists, who study humans and

their origins, generally accept that the human species can

be categorized into races based on physical and genetic

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 34

makeup. Virtually all scientists accept the fact that there

is no credible scientific evidence that one race is

culturally or psychologically different from any other, or

that one race is superior to another. Past studies which

reached conclusions other than that have been found to be

seriously flawed in their methodology or inherently biased.

Yet despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the

contrary, there are people who maintain that their own race

is superior to all others. These people, known collectively

as "racists," are the most likely to engage in

discrimination, persecution, and violence against those they

deem to be members of "inferior" races.

Stereotyping often results from, and leads to,

prejudice and bigotry

Unchecked prejudice and bigotry leads to

discrimination, violence, and, in extreme cases,

genocide

Prejudice can be spread by the use of propaganda and

inflamed by demagogues

Language, particularly slang, is often used to

dehumanize members of certain groups of people, and

this dehumanization is a precursor of discrimination,

isolation, violence, genocide and persecution of a

minority

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 35

Quota, Sexism and scapegoating are other issues deemed

by promoting these differences

Positive Responses to Prejudice and Stereotypes

Understanding the nature of prejudice, scapegoating,

stereotypes, and discrimination is the first step in

combating these practices. All of us have prejudices about

members of groups different from ourselves. We should,

however, recognize that we are not acting fairly if we treat

people differently because of these stereotypes and

prejudices. Each one of us deserves to be considered a

unique human being.

In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial,

civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I

have a dream that my four little children will one day live

in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of

their skin, but by the content of their character." Dr. King

devoted his life to fighting bigotry and prejudice. His

message was meant not only for African-Americans but for all

oppressed minorities. In taking a courageous stand against

racial hatred, Dr. King was subjected to personal injustices

which culminated in his murder at the hands of a racist

assassin. Yet his message of brotherhood, of understanding,

of inter-group dialogue, of coalition-building, of non-

violent resistance to injustice, has endured.

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 36

All of us face peer pressure when confronted with a joke

which puts down a certain minority. It takes courage to

raise objections to these jokes and pejorative names and to

actively fight the prejudice and bigotry which they foster.

It is important to stand up against injustice, and fight the

discrimination, stereotypes, and scapegoating which have

served as the precursors to persecution, violence, and

genocide.11

Reaching Consensus

Historical evidence has always proved that the stigmatized,

victims of stratification, who hang to the lowest rung of

the ladder in the class or caste system soon take a higher

order than the one’s who stratified them. This is evident in

the case of Italians who when entering Canada as immigrants,

were given the task of cleaning garbage and butchering;

supposed to be the meanly jobs of that time. Soon, the

Italians turned the tables around by making the two into the

biggest business and initiated their control by becoming

territorial with the help of the mafia. Can this be too

different or too distant from our own caste system, where

the backward are forward marching?

There are various things that can shape a person or the work

s/he does and time has been no indifferent to Freud too.

11 www.History.root.stereotypes.html

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 37

There were too many elements at that time nothing remaining

par contra that could have shaped his perception like:

The effect of the holocaust and a victim to it himself,

having lost part of his family to it, his 3 sons

volunteering for the army and having to live under

constant threat ever since. Applying his own

terminology, he resorted to ‘denial’ of nazi invasion

as an ego-defense mechanism

‘Publish or perish’ being the motto in the academia

then and now, the repetition and the accusation of

plagiarism (read ‘Origin of Freudian concepts’ by Craig

Chalquist) is only understandable when the need for

keeping the intellectual potpourri alive was not just a

want yet also a need for survival in a time of Jewish

persecution

During the nazi book burnings at Berlin’s Opernplatz in

10 May 1933, Freud’s books and literature were

included. Freud (a Jew himself) had to flee between

countries during the war before finally settling in

London; these demoralizing events had a sure impact

along with his priorities shifting into questioning war

itself, as evident in the literature he wrote along

with Albert Einstein titled “Why war?” narrows down to

the facts of survival taking the forefront than sex

Freud’s inoperable cancer, loss of his daughter Sophie,

his subtle anger towards religion, his paper on

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 38

‘Civilization and its discontent’, Anna being summoned

by the German Secret Police, Gestapo and later

released, reasons were more than one can give that kept

him in constant stress and fear

By this time, with age, he had his own ponderings over

the compulsive colonization of western ideologies which

if not adhered to, put people through guilt, shame and

admonition.

“…if often he was wrong and, at times, absurd, to us he is

no more a person

now but a whole climate of opinion.” W.H. Auden, In Memory

of Sigmund Freud 1973

“Love him or hate him, Sigmund Freud has profoundly

influenced Western culture.” Myers, David, G. “Psychology.”

2004

The Final Word

If this strange connection surprises you, stranger does it

seem to me that despite the call for pluralism, despite the

efforts taken by science as well as religion to tryst for

once to make us come in terms with the uniqueness of the

oneness in our emergence, despite the multi-cultural, multi-

lingual, multi-continental, multi-racial, multi-religious

and multi-ethnic mix we have seen in the contemporary

scenario, from where comes and so stubbornly stays our

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 39

prejudice, capability of discrimination and bigotry still?!

Even as social scientists or professionals from various

fields, how far have we opened ourselves from the realms of

this dwelling in conditional boxes? How far have we moved

from our own uncouthed learning from the maze of opinions

shrouding around us? How much have we unlearnt just as much

as we claim to have opulently learnt? Are we too being

magniloquent wrapping a mask of fake-civilization with our

subliminal views still pushing us from the abyss as we

constantly struggle to keep our balance to walk that thin

line segregating sanity from insanity? How far have we

moved?

As I meditate on this, a line emerges into the horizon of my

thought I remember reading once… “No matter how far one goes

trying to classify people, at the end of the day, they are

left with 2 classes of people; one class who differentiate

people into classes and the other who don’t.”

Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal 40

1 Ajith Fredjeev Dinakarlal, Asst. Professor, Department of Social Work, ChristUniversity, Bangalore, India.