Response 6: "The Machines"

There were a few passages from “The Machines” that particularly caught my attention. For example, “the concept of a hierarchical body, with ‘higher’ controlling and functioning organs, such as the brain, or the face…is rejected in favor of intestines of desire” (GT 296). I am in agreement with this statement because it reminds me of smoking, in a way. People who smoke know it’s bad for them and can damage their organs in the long run, but they do still smoke because they desire that cigarette. However, there are people that want to quit smoking, which leads to the competition of the “’higher’ controlling and functioning organs” (the brain) and the “intestines of desire.” There can even be ex-smokers who are tempted, and again comes in the struggle of the brain versus desire. There was also a mention of how humans are “’desiring machine[s]’” (296), and it is true that humans are driven by desire: our desire for a stable income, a good life, good food, great friends, to travel, to complete our bucket list and so on. As Petyr Baelish says in Game of Thrones, “it doesn’t matter what we want, once we get it we want something else”.  However, there is also an interesting kind of reversal, sometimes we are machines not because we follow desire, but rather forsake it or suppress it in favor of conventions or expectations set by society. 

Response 5: "Psychoanalysis and its Critics"

I do agree somewhat with Freud’s id, ego, and superego theory. Undoubtedly, there have been instances where we have denied ourselves something that we wanted (id) because we were worried of what others would think (ego) or because it wasn't the best moral decision (ego). Sometimes, if the id is stronger, we do let gratification come before our worries of other’s reactions or the right thing to do. However, I am also in agreement with his critics in their rejection of sexuality “as the underlying cause of neurosis” (GT 239). I also think Jung’s “therapeutic use of word-association tests to trigger emotional responses (which uncovered otherwise hidden neuroses)"would have been more telling than Freud’s dream analysis (239); mostly because I think how we respond to things or how we don’t respond to certain things is a lot more telling than interpreting the dreams that we have. Not to say that interpreting or discussing dreams isn't of value, for example as we discussed in class, the nightmares of war that veterans have after coming home from duty is a very telling kind of dream, and those nightmares/dreams do need to be addressed.