The Brain; Freud's Theories in a Nutshell (Yonec symbol...)

Lab: (period 1)

Please read, annotate, and creatively respond to the article: "You Think With the World, Not Just Your Brain." September, 2017, The Atlantic.

Writers use a synthesis of information/articles/films/poems/trivia and so on when writing. Everything can be used as long as it communicates an idea. In this essay alone the author references philosophers, science/biology, pop culture film, and somewhat obscure literature. As you read, notice how the author uses pop culture to hook the attention of the audience, but then supports ideas present in the film into more serious philosophy, science, and psychology. The author then returns to the film by the end of the essay, framing the narrative effectively. You can use a similar framing tactic in your own creative essays and stories.

To help with some references made in the article, check out:

• Videodrome (film, 1983; Cronenberg)
• Descartes: Cogito Ergo Sum
• Octopus (Why the Octopus brain is so extraordinary) & Shapeshifting Octopus
• Clark & Chalmers "The Extended Mind"
• From Molloy by Samuel Beckett: (notice the example of stream of consciousness...)

"I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got there. Perhaps in an ambulance, certainly a vehicle of some kind. I was helped. I’d never have got there alone. There’s this man who comes every week. Perhaps I got here thanks to him. He says not. He gives me money and takes away the pages. So many pages, so much money. Yes, I work now, a little like I used to, except that I don’t know how to work any more. That doesn’t matter apparently. What I’d like now is to speak of the things that are left, say my good-byes, finish dying. They don’t want that. Yes, there is more than one, apparently. But it’s always the same one that comes. You’ll do that later, he says. Good. The truth is I haven’t much will left. When he comes for the fresh pages he brings back the previous week’s. They are marked with signs I don’t understand. Anyway I don’t read them. When I’ve done nothing he gives me nothing, he scolds me. Yet I don’t work for money. For what then? I don’t know. The truth is I don’t know much. For example my mother’s death. Was she already dead when I came? Or did she only die later? I mean enough to bury. I don’t know. Perhaps they haven’t buried her yet. In any case I have her room. I sleep in her bed. I piss and shit in her pot. I have taken her place. I must resemble her more and more. All I need now is a son. Perhaps I have one somewhere. But I think not. He would be old now, nearly as old as myself. It was a little chambermaid. It wasn’t true love. The true love was in another. We’ll come to that. Her name? I’ve forgotten it again. It seems to me sometimes that I even knew my son, that I helped him. Then I tell myself it’s impossible. It’s impossible I could ever have helped anyone. I’ve forgotten how to spell too, and half the words. That doesn’t matter apparently. Good. He’s a queer one the one who comes to see me. He comes every Sunday apparently. The other days he isn’t free. He’s always thirsty. It was he told me I’d begun all wrong, that I should have begun differently. He must be right. I began at the beginning, like an old ballocks, can you imagine that? Here’s my beginning. Because they’re keeping it apparently. I took a lot of trouble with it. Here it is. 

It gave me a lot of trouble. It was the beginning, do you understand? Whereas now it’s nearly the end. Is what I do now any better? I don’t know. That’s beside the point. Here’s my beginning. It must mean something, or they wouldn’t keep it. Here it is. This time, then once more I think, then perhaps a last time, then I think it’ll be over, with that world too. Premonition of the last but one but one. All grows dim. A little more and you’ll go blind. It’s in the head. It doesn’t work any more, it says, I don’t work any more. You go dumb as well and sounds fade. The threshold scarcely crossed that’s how it is. It’s the head."

• Prompt: revise an essay or story by adding allusions or references to other similar themes or ideas from film, t.v., media, pop culture, science, philosophy, psychology, etc. Use a framing device for your structure.

Then learn a little about the brain.

The Brain: the human brain, the largest of the mammal-kind relative to body size, is the command center for the nervous system of the body. It receives input from sensory organs (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell--hey! IMAGERY!) and sends messages from this input to the rest of the body (muscles, organs, etc.). The normal human brain averages about 3.3 lbs. and is comprised of over 86 billion nerve cells (neurons -- grey matter) and nerve fibers (axons and dendrites or "white matter"), all closely spaced together with synapses.

The major parts of the brain are the cerebrum (forebrain), the cerebellum (the hindbrain), and the brainstem (the midbrain).  The cerebrum is divided again into the cerebral cortex with its four lobes (the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe). Anyway, enough of that medical talk. The whole thing remains a complex system, essential to thinking, feeling, learning, singing, writing, talking, remembering, and all other mental functions. Use it wisely.

• Meet Your Master: Getting to Know Your Brain (Crash Course Psychology #4)

It is important to note that psychology involves quite a bit of understanding of human biology. The chemistry of your body affects the way your brain works. Neurons (bipolar, unipolar, multipolar, and pyramidal cells) and cells make up the brain (see description above).

• Use any of this information or what it inspires creatively.
• Discuss chapters 2-4 of A Clockwork Orange. Compare summaries of the chapters with a peer or two.
• Read the article on Freud (see homework) or A Clockwork Orange
• Peer review and workshop

Pick up Equus from the library between classes so that you have it. We will be reading this play in class. More details to follow.

Period 2:

Take notes on key points of this lecture on your KWL charts. Use the back of the form if you wish to take further notes on Sigmund Freud. These notes may guide you as you study this topic.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and another video on him.

Freud in a nutshell:

Freud created "Freudian Psychology" (psychoanalysis): interpreting what people say and do in order to figure out what their root problems are.

Freudian psychology is used by literary critics using psychoanalytical criticism. In order to use this type of criticism, you need a basic understanding of Freud's key concepts.

Freud believed that psychological desires influence the forming of a personality.

Theory of Unconscious:
The part of the mind that thinks and feels without you being aware of these thoughts and feelings is called the UNCONSCIOUS.
The UNCONSCIOUS is comprised of 3 sections: The Ego, the Id, and the Superego.

1. The Ego is the self
2. The Id is the animalistic or primitive side of the unconscious.
3. The Superego is the control

Dreams are one way of communicating with the unconscious. They are coded messages mailed to your conscious self. Dreams use symbols to suggest meaning. See a dream symbol dictionary site for some pop culture interpretation of your dreams.

Freud also stated that:

We all have desires.
Sometimes the self cannot admit that it wants certain things, because we all learn (usually during infancy) that some things are bad for us.
As a result, the mind REPRESSES (repression) or hides these desires in the unconscious until they resurface as expensive psychoanalysis bills.
In general, most repressed desires are sexual in nature.

We are sexually motivated from birth. Freud divided people into three major developmental stages:

1. Oral (infancy to about 1 year old)
2. Anal (2-3 years)
3. Genital (until about adulthood)

Freud had two major principles:

1. Pleasure Principal: we pursue pleasure. From the moment we're born, we want to be comforted, fed, etc. This pleasure seeking can be both physical and emotional.
2. Reality Principle: You can't always get what you want. Sometimes you have to alter your instinctual behavior to get what you want. Often this leads to supression.

These two principles combine to affect our personalities and make us who we are.
Jokes, dreams, myths, compulsions, obsessions, fetishes, hysterical fits, etc. all are part of our repressed desires, says Freud.

Two Famous Complexes:

Oedipus Complex: A desire to get rid of one's father and "marry" one's mother.
Virtually all men deal with this repressed desire, says Freud.
A male child develops an Oedipus complex as a result of having to compete with their fathers for their mother's attention/affection. They have not learned to accept their fathers' authority and are still dependent on the mother.

Girls go through the Electra Complex - basically the same thing, but reversed gender roles: daughter wants father, etc.

Well, well. More about Freudian disorders & defense mechanisms next class.

If we have time, let's ride into our next play...Equus. Details to follow.

HOMEWORK: Read chapters 5-7 (part one) of A Clockwork Orange. Read the chapter handout on Freud and his theories. Bring your Equus scripts back with you to next class.