Feelings Of Our Self Of Our Ego example essay topic

Civilizations and Its Discontents: Chapter 1 In chapter one of "Civilizations and Its Discontents", Freud says a friend explained to him the "oceanic" feeling. My interpretations of it are; you can see life, appreciate it, feel overwhelmed by it, and call that feeling religious, but have no belief. It actually means feeling like you are a part of everything. I don't think I have ever had the feeling of being a part of everything, but I have seen things before that took my breath away and gave me the "oceanic feeling" as I interpreted it. I experienced this when I went to Colorado for the first time. I was driving along the flat scenery when all of a sudden, the mountains were right in front of me, snow capped and all.

Later that day, I was glad to not be a part of everything because it was the summer after the Columbine killings, and as I drove by the school I saw memorials with flowers and letters. It made me sad, but happy to not be a part of it, be from Tennessee, and not have friends involved. Freud goes on later to explain the "ego". He says, "There is nothing of which we are more certain than the feelings of our self, of our ego". To my understanding, its saying that everything in the outside world that we pick up, makes up our ego, but then our thoughts from our ego make up our id, which is the unconscious part of the mind. Freud mentions that our ego can sort of play with us when we are in love though.

He says we sort of become blind, "The boundary between ego and object threatens to melt away. Against all the evidence of his senses, a man who is in love declares that "I" and "you" are one and is prepared to behave as if it were a fact. An example of this in our society is the unity candle at weddings. The bride and groom each have a candle that represents themselves and as they light the one in the middle that represents them as "one", they extinguish their individual ones. I agree that the ego has to develop, "An infant at the breast does not as yet distinguish his ego from the external world as the source of the sensations flowing in upon him".

You aren't just born with it, everyday life experiences build it. I believe a baby is born with a conscious, but not true ideas of the external world. This is kind of what John Locke said of his "Tabula Rasa" view of babies being born with a blank slate. Civilizations and Its Discontents: Chapter 2 "The question of the purpose of human life has been raised countless times; it has never yet received a satisfactory answer and perhaps does not admit of one. Some of those who have asked it have added that if it should turn out that life has no purpose, it would lose all value to them". I agree with the part that it might "not admit of one", but I don't think my life would lose value.

I could always make my own purpose. I don't agree with "only religion can answer the question of the purpose of life". I don't agree because, to me, religion isn't everything. Some people say God is in everything, but then again, who really knows? I have the "oceanic" feeling of being overwhelmed and a part of everything, like; scenic views, animals, weather, etc, . But I don't automatically think of God.

I do believe in God, but I don't look at something and said, "That's God". Freud goes on to mention that by the behavior men have, it seems like their purpose is happiness. He says it has a positive and negative aim, which are the absence of pain, and the strong feeling of pleasure. I don't think the first one would really cause happiness because you could still be empty inside. On the other side of happiness, we have suffering, "We are threatened with suffering from three directions", says Freud.

The three directions that he mentions are well known to me because I have experienced suffering from all three. They are; "from our own body, which is doomed to decay, the external world, which may rage against us with forces of destruction, and our relations to other men". I also agree when Freud says the suffering from men causes us the most pain. This could also go back to the point of purpose in our life, and trying to fit in or impress others. Sometimes people can be crude to others, even driving some to suicide because they didn't like being made fun of. I wonder why we really care what others think?