Category Archives: ResponsePaper
Response Paper #2- Option 1
Daniel Gilbert and Sigmund Freud obviously have one distinct characteristic in common: they both studied psychology. While Gilbert focuses mostly on the idea of happiness in his writings, Freud explores the human psyche on a much deeper level. Although both Gilbert and Freud take two different approaches in their writings, it is easy to identify Freud’s ideas in Gilbert’s writing.
For example, Gilbert touches on the idea of pleasure as an ultimate goal for everyone, and even directly quotes Freud in his writing. But, later on in The View from Here, Gilbert introduces an idea that I feel is similar to Freud’s “Child’s Play” or “Fort/Da.” Gilbert writes, “If we amble down to the corner pub and met an alien from another planet who asked us to define that feeling, we would [either] point to the objects in the world that tend to bring it about…” (34). This simple example reminds me of the Fort/Da idea Freud introduces in Beyond the Pleasure Principle. I know it may seem like a bit of a stretch, especially as the child’s game of Fort/Da is more of a disappearing game to demonstrate how much the child misses his mother while she’s gone, but I feel that this quote reminds me of Gilbert’s example of going down to the pub:
“One day I made an observation that confirmed my view. The child had a wooden reel with a piece of string wound round it. It never occurred to him for example, to drag this after him on the floor and so play horse and cart with it, but he kept throwing it with considerable skill, held by the string, over the side of the little draped cot, so that the reel disappeared into it, then said the significant ‘o-o-o-oh’ and drew the reel by the string out of the cot again, greeting its reappearance with a joyful ‘Da’ (there)” (12).
It is clear to see that the child feels happy when he brings the wooden reel into his view, therefore emitting the joyful ‘Da.’ I feel that this is similar to the aforementioned example from Gilbert because it shows that when we’re reduced to communicating our feelings (in this case, of happiness) in a simplistic manner, we use objects that help bring that feeling about. While the child uses the wooden reel in Freud’s example, we would most likely point to other objects in the world that make us happy if we were to communicate with an alien from another planet (assuming there is no other way to communicate, almost like communicating as a child or with a child). In this specific instance, I feel that Freud’s influence on Gilbert is pretty clear to see.
Overall, even though Gilbert solely focuses on the idea of happiness in his writings and Freud delves into the human psyche in his, Freud’s influence on Gilbert can be noted in many examples Gilbert presents. Whether it is as obvious as the idea of pleasure being a goal for everyone, or more complex with the example of the alien at the pub, the influence is still there.
Response Paper Two
Freud’s theory of the child’s game of “disappearance and return”, also known as “fort da”, is similar to Freud’s theory of pleasure and pain. The game is played with a wooden reel with a piece of string attached to it in which the child would throw away and reel it back in. The game is basically a replay of the child’s experience when his mother goes away and returns to him. During the period in which the mother is away from the child, the child is in an unpleasant state of tension. He is in pain being away from his mother even though he never cried. When the mother returns to his side, the child is relaxed from this tension and pain therefore feeling pleasure. When the child retrieves the wooden reel with the piece of string, he is reminiscing the pleasure he gets when his mother returns by his side. However, in order to obtain this pleasure, he has to go through a painful process of throwing the wooden reel away, which is when his mother leaves him. Also, by playing this game, the child is trying to reduce the pain he feels when his mother leaves him. In the game, he is in control of the toy and he can either throw it away or take it back.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is slightly similar to the child’s game “fort da”. In the Allegory of the cave, the prisoners are in an unpleasant state in which the only things that they see are shadows. When they are taken out of the cave, they are pleased to see the reality of things and what the shadows really are. After experiencing what the real world is like outside the cave, they return back to the cave and try to reproduce the same experience by teaching the other prisoners about what they saw. By trying to teach the other prisoners about the outside world, the prisoner is sharing his pleasure to the outside world. The prisoner can only appreciate the real world after staying in the cave for a very long time. When the prisoner is trapped inside the cave, it is similar to when the child is in pain away from the mother. When the child is reunited with the mother he is happy just like when the prisoner is finally released from the cave and enters the outside world.
I think that both the child’s game of “fort da” and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave can be related to happiness. The pleasure the child feels when he is reunited with his mother and the toy is a sense of happiness. By throwing the toy away and retrieving it, he is trying to remember those feelings. When the prisoner is forced outside the cave and brought to the outside world, he has, in a sense, gained happiness because he is able to determine what the true form of the shadows are. To the child, happiness is being reunited with his mother and to the prisoner, happiness is experiencing and knowing the true forms of things. The child is recreating the happiness he felt when his mother return by playing this game. The prisoners is recreating the happiness and pleasure of the outside world by teaching the others about it.
Response Paper 2
Nature versus nurture has always been a theory questioned by many humans. Many people find it important to know what causes their actions and how exactly they occur in the ways which they do, whether it is due to the environment surrounding us or if it is hereditary. It becomes quite clear to me that society itself and experience with the outside world play huge roles in how humans develop mentally. In Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle he addresses “children’s play” and when observing an eighteen month old baby he discovers that the baby has turned an experience into a game. He states that the baby “was in the first place passive, was overtaken by the experience, but now brings himself in as playing an active part, by repeating the experience as a game in spite of its unpleasing nature” (14). As a child, you are yet to discover new wonders in the world, so through experience you begin to form reactions that enable you to feel different emotions that you are born with. Such an example is one that leads me into believing that nature and nurture come hand in hand. Without nature you would not have nurture since nature is what enables us humans to practice the innate traits we are born with, such as happiness.
In Plato’s The Republic Book Seven “Allegory of the Cave” he tells a story about prisoners who are chained and live their entire lives in a cave having no connection to the outer world other than a bright fire off in the distance. I believe that its significance of this allegory is to demonstrate that one’s surroundings is a vital part in determining their morals and beliefs. Since the prisoners grew acceptance of the dark cave they were in, they did not know that there was actually much more in the world, and having lived such a long time without any doubt, it was hard for them to believe that there really could be something beyond the bright fire. Their senses and innate traits had adapted to the surroundings of the cave and they had become content and satisfied with their lifestyle. In both Freud’s and Plato’s pieces, nature and nurture intertwine and enable the characters to further develop mentally and create certain beliefs and morals that shape one’s own personal idea and definition of happiness.
-Diana Achaibar
Response Paper #2 Isaac (Ikey) Douek (DG13E)
“Cribs in Caves”
Domination, the fetish of some, is Freud’s theory of how children, very young children, act in accordance with the pleasure principle. As described in his book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the pleasure principle describes people who look to attain pleasure and avoid pain or suffering to keep themselves physically and mentally stable. How can a small child possibly be developed enough to comply with such a mentality? Ah, “fort da.”
“Fort da” is a game Freud describes. The game consists of the child throwing and toy out of is sight, and then retrieving it using the string attached. He goes on to say that this game is a reflection of the child’s emotions towards his mother’s departure. The child is sending away the toy as if he is sending away his mother, putting him or herself in control of the situation thus relieving him or herself of the emotional distress associated with being left alone for hours by his or her caregiver. If only they had Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Plato’s cave.
In Plato’s Allegory of the cave, it was the prisoner’s obligation to return to the cave in order to teach the other imprisoned about the forms and realities outside the hole in the rock. If Freud were to have edited the allegory, the story would have differed. The prisoners would have convinced themselves that they have sent away their released brother and that they are better off in cave, all in order to deal with the emotional distress. They would be trying to be happy.
From “fort da,” one can take away the idea that happiness is control and stability. This notion has been mentioned once before by a rather intelligent and dashing young student in the class of the ever-lovely Professor Kaufman. It is very possible, however, that the aforementioned student is complimenting himself in order to gain control of the situation. Who knows?
