In Chapter 2 of Freud’s text, he carefully investigates “children’s play,” specifically a game of “disappearance and return” which becomes known as “fort da.” Why do you think this game is so important to Freud’s ideas? How does this compare to Plato’s “allegory of the cave”? And, of course, what does any of this tell us about happiness?
The game known as fort da is so so important to Freud because he is attempting to understand our unconscious mind and find the hidden reasons for why we do the things we do. When the child plays with his toy and throws it away just to find it again, Freud saw this as a link to his mother. When she left, the child would be sad and upon her return would once more be happy. He would experience the same thing while playing with his toy except now he was the one in control. In this way, the child makes himself experience the same kind of pain that he goes through when his mother leaves and every time he finds the toy, he receives immense pleasure. This is similar to Plato’s “allegory of the cave” in that both the child and the men in the cave received knowledge of the world around them and understood it better in order to achieve happiness. The child knew his mother would return just as his toy did and the men in the cave went outside and saw the real world to become happy. It also shows how once you acquire knowledge, you cannot go back to being ignorant. As the internet says “cannot unsee”.
This tells me that as far as happiness is concerned, it is easier to achieve it when you have a good perception of the world and see things as they really are. More knowledge does not make you happier but being comfortable with the way things are in your life is sure to bring more pleasure every day. The child understand that his mother will come back and even though he still feels pain when she leaves, it is lessened. However, the pleasure he feels upon her return is increased. The man in the cave has been chained up and sees mere shadows of what the world really is so once he experiences what it is like outside, he becomes much happier because his eyes are open to the truth.
