[Dragaera] A Teckla thought

[Michael Wojcik]

Maximilian Wilson wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:
>> Yeah, but it wasn't *me* in any meaningful way who is in the other
>> incarnations.   I am getting the reward/punishment for some other guy.
> 
> Isn't this always true, whether you've died in between or not? One
> reason some people have trouble planning for the future is that it
> feels like an externality: I'm giving up something today for the sake
> of someone I don't really care about (me tomorrow). Who you identify
> with as "me" is ultimately an arbitrary, emotional decision.

Yes. This observation led Freud to introduce the concept of the
"Reality Principle", which is the mental capability to form an
imaginary identification with a future self, and sympathize with that
future self's imagined pleasures and pains. When, as children, we
develop the Reality Principle, we learn to use it to override the
Pleasure Principle, which is the basic drive to maximize current
pleasure and minimize current pain; the Reality Principle, when it
works, drives us to defer satisfying the Pleasure Principle now in the
expectation of greater satisfaction later.

Countering both the Pleasure Principle and Reality Principle (which
are both forms of the drive to maximize pleasure and minimize pain),
in Freud's theory, is the Death Drive, which seeks to minimize
stimulation of any sort and keep us in a state of emotional equilibrium.

Where Hinduism, Christianity, etc connect "correct" behavior to the
Reality Principle, Buddhism connects it to the Death Drive.[1]


ObDragaera: It's interesting (though probably contentious) to see
Vlad's development in Freudian terms as an evolution from an emphasis
on the Pleasure Principle (beating up Orca toughs, joining the
Organization, etc) to the Reality Principle (Vlad the Troubleshooter
of the pre-_Phoenix_ years) to the Death Principle (the more stoic and
philosophical Vlad that's been emerging in the most chronologically
recent stories). Or in Eastern-religious[2] terms: Dragaeran theology,
at least in the Empire, is somewhat Hindu-like, with a pantheon of
gods that have largely-comprehensible motivations and behaviors, and
can be negotiated with. Is Vlad moving toward something more Buddhist,
where he seeks a mode of behavior that will release him from the cycle
of violence he's caught up in - or even from the Cycle itself?


[1] Freud's basic explanation of the principles and drives can be
found in his _Beyond the Pleasure Principle_. For the relationship
between Freudian theory and Buddhism, see eg Pruett, _The Meaning and
End of Suffering for Freud and the Buddhist Tradition_.

[2] Hugely oversimplified, obviously. Of course there are many more
"Eastern" religions - it's not like there's a dichotomy between
Hinduism and Buddhism, or only one variants of each of those.

-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus
Rhetoric & Writing, Michigan State University