The thread reminded me of this song. I was going to joke "Here I am!!!!"....
But, who am I?
I think maybe we need a saviour, in that there are still issues in the world, and we feel inadequate when facing this.
So there is a innate "type" the saviour, the blessed one, who will resolve our difficulties. Schizophrenia, delusions of grandeur, show how this can manifest in mental illness - the "type" becomes the "me", I become the blessed one, the saviour.
Ethical systems and world views localize or accrete around the saviour type, follow and obey and be saved. Its like a personification of an ethical ideal, just as satan or devil (or his manifest agent, like the antichrist) represents the personal cause of disorder, decay, disease etc.
There is a good point to this, patience with adversity has merits, but we ought not become apathetic, indifferent and hopeless.
A "common saviour" can help us fend of those country Joe blues.
Yet a lack of insight into the psychodynamics, it can lead to overenthusiasm, fundamentalism and fanaticism. So "The ONLY saviour OFFICIAL" becomes "a saviour FREELY CHOSEN", one type selected from amongst many, in a social matrix of choices and adherences which otherwise lack psychological self awareness.
What we have are 2 poles of psychic process, in the individual, but many systems of reifying them in the concrete, in interpersonal interaction. ie common brain systems, common types, but diverse religious and social interpretations. Diverse cultural embodiment of these ideals.
Then the religious types are as the highly connected "hubs" in a idealised social network, they (eg the coming Mehdi is THE MAN) and they are the ones people connect to. Everyone knows him. All believe. He's the kingpin or our dreams.
Unconsicous phantasy helps build the image, so we have a personal interpretation directed and enlivened by this in conscious thought. The ideal, the saviour becomes a Rorschach test for our psychic self discovery, or on the other hand it is a bundle of Freudian slips, in that what he will achieve represents a projection of our unconscious minds "to do list" etc (beat the Jews, make us dominant, destroy our foes etc).
But, who am I?
I think maybe we need a saviour, in that there are still issues in the world, and we feel inadequate when facing this.
So there is a innate "type" the saviour, the blessed one, who will resolve our difficulties. Schizophrenia, delusions of grandeur, show how this can manifest in mental illness - the "type" becomes the "me", I become the blessed one, the saviour.
Ethical systems and world views localize or accrete around the saviour type, follow and obey and be saved. Its like a personification of an ethical ideal, just as satan or devil (or his manifest agent, like the antichrist) represents the personal cause of disorder, decay, disease etc.
There is a good point to this, patience with adversity has merits, but we ought not become apathetic, indifferent and hopeless.
A "common saviour" can help us fend of those country Joe blues.
Yet a lack of insight into the psychodynamics, it can lead to overenthusiasm, fundamentalism and fanaticism. So "The ONLY saviour OFFICIAL" becomes "a saviour FREELY CHOSEN", one type selected from amongst many, in a social matrix of choices and adherences which otherwise lack psychological self awareness.
What we have are 2 poles of psychic process, in the individual, but many systems of reifying them in the concrete, in interpersonal interaction. ie common brain systems, common types, but diverse religious and social interpretations. Diverse cultural embodiment of these ideals.
Then the religious types are as the highly connected "hubs" in a idealised social network, they (eg the coming Mehdi is THE MAN) and they are the ones people connect to. Everyone knows him. All believe. He's the kingpin or our dreams.
Unconsicous phantasy helps build the image, so we have a personal interpretation directed and enlivened by this in conscious thought. The ideal, the saviour becomes a Rorschach test for our psychic self discovery, or on the other hand it is a bundle of Freudian slips, in that what he will achieve represents a projection of our unconscious minds "to do list" etc (beat the Jews, make us dominant, destroy our foes etc).
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