Oh, Mother!
Day 1,296, 14:24
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Published in USA 
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by
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by Silas Soule
Oh, Mother!
Since The Free University -- a somewhat devious attempt at using eRepublik as a template to explore Philosophy -- was so well-received, I thought I'd try my hand at a similar in-game game: applying various psychological theories to the game world. You could say this is my somewhat warped approach to the "meta-game". You could say any number of things for that matter. And you probably will.. LOL
Anyway...
First up: how Dr. Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex plays out in eRepublik.
You've all heard of the Oedipus Complex, yeah? It's a boy's sub-conscious desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother, right?
Mostly bunk, I 'spose.
But this classical Freudian pattern does seem to kinda play out in eRepublik in certain ways, doesn't it?
For example, let's ponder certain players' obsession with posting images of big boobs. And their corresponding awe of "big men" in the game. That could indeed be evidence of the stage of psychosexual infantilism (i.e., I "want" my Momma -- really! -- and "My Da must be awesome cuz my Ma loves him so much."). This is a stage which, according to Freud, all boys go through.
Yeah, maybe. Whatever. And btw, it's cool. It's normal... for a youngster.
But sometimes a melon is just a melon.
Then there's the next stage, which is the expression of classical male psychological defenses against castration anxiety. You psych majors know this one: awe turns into fear and jealousy of the father. It tends to strike around age 13 or 14 and then, typically, lasts for a few years.
Could the humorous male-male identification and competition that underlies all that earnest "bro" talk -- not to mention the jocularity about "bromosexuality" -- be evidence of typical unconscious reactions to such sub-concious anxieties? After all, this type of thing serves to deflect and undermine unconscious anxieties about competition for mother's affections. (As in the well-known quip: "Bro's before ho's.")
And it certainly has an element of the archetypal expression that Freud noted, to wit...
Well, first the good Doctor argued -- incorrectly -- that getting stuck in the stage of phallic fixation as a reaction to castration anxiety is what leads to homosexuality in real life. That's been debunked. But more interestingly, he observed -- probably correctly -- that an inability or unwillingness to leave this stage of unconscious psychologic defense against the Oedipal impulse to "kill the father" can lead to development of a personality that is aggressive, over-ambitious, and vain.
Hmmmm. OK.
But then again. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
In classical Freudianism, as I understand it, the Oediupus Complex is said to be resolved via healthy development of the male super-ego. This stage in psychological development is marked by identification rather than competition with the father-figure. Such an internalization of morality signifies that a choice has been made to comply with societal rules instead of reflexively complying for fear of punishment.
As with the other stages, it is tempting to interpret that dénouement in game terms.
You know... that stage of play where one accepts other players' actions and ambitions for what they are: simply some bored dudes clicking buttons in a browser game according to whatever plans or impulses rock their boat. Nothing more, nothing less.
Even more to the Freudian point: perhaps the resolution of such anxieties arrives once we fully recognize that the game itself is simply a half-baked business plan aimed at enriching a few folks in a land that could really use some capital inflows.
In other words, letting go of the idea that Admin is your competition and seeing him instead of just another guy trying to make a go of it in a messy world. For those of us who at one time or another have expressed, ahem, "higher" aspirations for this game, such a realization means not only letting go of anger at the Admin, but also letting go of the illusion that eRepublik is some kind of "canvas" for the imagination, or a "lab" for a new type of social networking.
But mainly, at its core, it is letting go of the feeling that the game is something that Admin is "forcing" players to engage in. Not only does it not matter what happens in the game, it also doesn't matter whether the Admin has "good" or "bad" intentions.
He's not your Dad. He's not your Bro. He's just a guy trying to make a buck and maybe get back home in one piece.
Great and Terrible Admin is discovered to be a just another carny huckster who is not really all that evil after all.
So that's my 10-cents worth of free psychoanalysis for today.
You're welcome.
Next Time (if I can be bothered): Lacan, the Mirror Complex, and Self-Reflection in eRepublik
FREEDOM WRITERS
Also, check out these very fine writers:
* Kentel says Hey, on WHPR
* Vermont Senator Jufedkg Borman provides a detailed Congressional Report
* DanielCD waxes nostalgic about The Age of Fake Libertarians
* The Mobile Infantry Press interviews Lieutenant General Heather Fuchs
* Serbian bro dasa1234567890 bids adieu to the e-USA in I leaving my home in Texas
* My new BFF, Ronald Reagan Reborn, reveals his nefarious plans as Director of Affirmations in Evil Chutley's BOATUS cabinet in Schemes of an Evil Chutley Staffer
* Oh, and what's this?... Attention Newbs: Free Food from your buds at the Socialist Freedom Party, which is, of course, the best party in America!
xio,
PQ
Since The Free University -- a somewhat devious attempt at using eRepublik as a template to explore Philosophy -- was so well-received, I thought I'd try my hand at a similar in-game game: applying various psychological theories to the game world. You could say this is my somewhat warped approach to the "meta-game". You could say any number of things for that matter. And you probably will.. LOL
Anyway...
First up: how Dr. Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex plays out in eRepublik.
You've all heard of the Oedipus Complex, yeah? It's a boy's sub-conscious desire to kill his father and sleep with his mother, right?
Mostly bunk, I 'spose.
But this classical Freudian pattern does seem to kinda play out in eRepublik in certain ways, doesn't it?
For example, let's ponder certain players' obsession with posting images of big boobs. And their corresponding awe of "big men" in the game. That could indeed be evidence of the stage of psychosexual infantilism (i.e., I "want" my Momma -- really! -- and "My Da must be awesome cuz my Ma loves him so much."). This is a stage which, according to Freud, all boys go through.
Yeah, maybe. Whatever. And btw, it's cool. It's normal... for a youngster.
But sometimes a melon is just a melon.
Then there's the next stage, which is the expression of classical male psychological defenses against castration anxiety. You psych majors know this one: awe turns into fear and jealousy of the father. It tends to strike around age 13 or 14 and then, typically, lasts for a few years.
Could the humorous male-male identification and competition that underlies all that earnest "bro" talk -- not to mention the jocularity about "bromosexuality" -- be evidence of typical unconscious reactions to such sub-concious anxieties? After all, this type of thing serves to deflect and undermine unconscious anxieties about competition for mother's affections. (As in the well-known quip: "Bro's before ho's.")
And it certainly has an element of the archetypal expression that Freud noted, to wit...
Well, first the good Doctor argued -- incorrectly -- that getting stuck in the stage of phallic fixation as a reaction to castration anxiety is what leads to homosexuality in real life. That's been debunked. But more interestingly, he observed -- probably correctly -- that an inability or unwillingness to leave this stage of unconscious psychologic defense against the Oedipal impulse to "kill the father" can lead to development of a personality that is aggressive, over-ambitious, and vain.
Hmmmm. OK.
But then again. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
In classical Freudianism, as I understand it, the Oediupus Complex is said to be resolved via healthy development of the male super-ego. This stage in psychological development is marked by identification rather than competition with the father-figure. Such an internalization of morality signifies that a choice has been made to comply with societal rules instead of reflexively complying for fear of punishment.
As with the other stages, it is tempting to interpret that dénouement in game terms.
You know... that stage of play where one accepts other players' actions and ambitions for what they are: simply some bored dudes clicking buttons in a browser game according to whatever plans or impulses rock their boat. Nothing more, nothing less.
Even more to the Freudian point: perhaps the resolution of such anxieties arrives once we fully recognize that the game itself is simply a half-baked business plan aimed at enriching a few folks in a land that could really use some capital inflows.
In other words, letting go of the idea that Admin is your competition and seeing him instead of just another guy trying to make a go of it in a messy world. For those of us who at one time or another have expressed, ahem, "higher" aspirations for this game, such a realization means not only letting go of anger at the Admin, but also letting go of the illusion that eRepublik is some kind of "canvas" for the imagination, or a "lab" for a new type of social networking.
But mainly, at its core, it is letting go of the feeling that the game is something that Admin is "forcing" players to engage in. Not only does it not matter what happens in the game, it also doesn't matter whether the Admin has "good" or "bad" intentions.
He's not your Dad. He's not your Bro. He's just a guy trying to make a buck and maybe get back home in one piece.
Great and Terrible Admin is discovered to be a just another carny huckster who is not really all that evil after all.
So that's my 10-cents worth of free psychoanalysis for today.
You're welcome.
Next Time (if I can be bothered): Lacan, the Mirror Complex, and Self-Reflection in eRepublik
FREEDOM WRITERS
Also, check out these very fine writers:
* Kentel says Hey, on WHPR
* Vermont Senator Jufedkg Borman provides a detailed Congressional Report
* DanielCD waxes nostalgic about The Age of Fake Libertarians
* The Mobile Infantry Press interviews Lieutenant General Heather Fuchs
* Serbian bro dasa1234567890 bids adieu to the e-USA in I leaving my home in Texas
* My new BFF, Ronald Reagan Reborn, reveals his nefarious plans as Director of Affirmations in Evil Chutley's BOATUS cabinet in Schemes of an Evil Chutley Staffer
* Oh, and what's this?... Attention Newbs: Free Food from your buds at the Socialist Freedom Party, which is, of course, the best party in America!
xio,
PQ
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Comments
Sometimes a game is just a game.
and sometimes players don't care about other players
this is soo awesome!
but seriously tho its awesome 😁
Freud was a quack 😛
School, and thus AP Psychology, is over. Don't give more of this shit D x
You could say that again, PQ.
^_~
http://youtu.be/2RzRsnCGmR0
Sometimes a hippie is just high. Just saying.
So much for the father of psychoanalysis.
Next week a look into your collective unconscious with Dr. Jung.
Excellent read! And the closest I've ever come to understanding "Psychology".
". . . .We have in our time a very peculiar generation of scholars who all are clear about it: ideologies are finished. Each one in his way has taken this or that ideology and criticized it so that nothing is left of it. Nevertheless, he does not quite see what to do afterwards, so we have a peculiar fence-straddling generation. These people are very serious; but their having seen that all is wrong still doesn't mean they know what is right. . . . "
"[Take] a case like Philip Rieff, who has written a splendid book, The Mind of the Moralist . If you read that book on Freud and psychoanalysis you know psychoanalysis is finished. After that book nobody can be a psychoanalyst with a decent conscience. But Rieff doesn't know what to do now."
Eric Voegelin, Collected Works
Volume 11 Chapter 14,
In Search of the Ground,
p 237.
This is phenomenal PQ
"Penis Envy" -lol
@Bruce, first of all, do NOT pronounce the word PISS-CHOO-LOGGY. That will go a long way when talking with someone schooled in the discipline.
Dr. Quinn I presume!
I love titties
Hmm that was weird.
Let's have a threesome!!
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