1. science
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Toward a Higher Fidelity: Being Holy
Shahna Lax, 2010, 19.5" x 19"
Etched and engraved copper with fretwork backed
in diamond plate aluminum; mounted on mahogany
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Acknowledging, Moving Toward, and Transcending
Psycho-physiological Angst During A Paradox of
Conflicting Desires
Matthew Gildersleeve
Abstract
The work of a number of philosophers is utilized to clarify some psychological issues that can arise during a conflict of intrapersonal or interpersonal desires. The work of Deleuze, Freud, Jung, Heidegger, Hegel and
Nietzsche is referenced to provide a conceptual framework as to how
mental disturbances may appear when unconscious desires are left unresolved. The phenomenal experience of a conflict of desires can be unconcealed in moments of un-readiness-to-hand and from the awareness of
the psycho-physiological experience of stress or angst. I argue that it is
fundamentally necessary to embrace Nietzsche’s idea of the “will to power” to overcome these difficulties and to achieve personal individuation
and authentic well-being. A detailed theoretical example of the process
involved in the resolution of a conflict of desires through selftranscendence is specifically informed by the ideas of Nietzsche and Jung.
Key Words
Psychoanalysis, Existentialism, Transcendent Function, Will to Power
______________________________
Matthew Gildersleeve teaches and conducts research with Queensland
University of Technology and Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.
He is currently in the process of developing a project involving phenomenological ontology and psychoanalysis. His past research has included
multisensory perception, human factors psychology, human-computer
interaction, phenomenology, existentialism and clinical psychology and
psychotherapy. Email: [email protected] Mailing Address: 137
Passage Street Cleveland Queensland Australia 4163
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Introduction
Deleuze has argued that reality, which encompasses the concept of a ‘self’,
must be conceived as a constantly changing assemblage of forces (Khalfa
& Deleuze, 2003, p.52). Deleuze also argued that human desires cannot
be escaped and humans are desiring machines who continually create
more desires to be fulfilled (De Bolle, 2010, p.18). These arguments by
Deleuze are significant because the field of psychoanalysis recognises that
if desires are ignored, severe mental disturbance interferes with the quality of one’s life (Auchincloss & Samberg, 2012, p.125). As a result, by recognizing these aspects of human existence one must look to their individual future to ensure their desires are satisfied to avoid psychological illness. This claim can be identified as strongly acknowledging Heidegger’s
authenticity argument that “Temporality reveals itself as the meaning of
authentic care" (Heidegger & Stambaugh, 1996, p.300). As a result, to
care for one’s mental wellbeing and to live authentically requires one to
conceive of how oneself will be able to satisfy their desires in the possibilities of the future.
Ignored desires (or complexes as Jung calls them) that remain in the
unconscious can cause psychological distress if they are prevented from
being satisfied through the conflict of another desire or is prevented from
entering the ego through defence mechanisms as described by Freud
(Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2012, p.34-38). Defence mechanisms that are executed by the ego are attempts to ignore the psychic urges deriving from
unconscious desires. Some defence mechanisms include Repression, Denial, Reaction Formation, Projection, Displacement or Undoing.
Jung
Jung’s idea of the complex came from his study on finding ignored desires within the unconscious of a person through using the Word Association Test (Engler, 2008, p.85). Jung read a list of words, requesting
participants to reply with the first word that emanated in their consciousness. After the list had been read, Jung then repeated the words.
This time the participants were requested to recall their previous anquadrant XLV
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swer. Jung found that delayed or failures to recall or psychosomatic responses revealed unconscious complexes that were disturbing an individual. These desires, revealed hidden unconscious forces of energy that
were not being satisfied or expressed in the world. On the other hand,
this new world is viewed with mistrust and is suspect by those who see
the signs of dangerous transformations in these new forms that pertain
to our way of living. More alarming remarks, perhaps extreme, stress
the risk that mass telecommunications can become another tool available to a hypothetical system that, through deceitful depersonalization,
would turn individuals into standardized masses, making it easier to be
pushed under the rules of global consumerism or of ultimate social control. This viewpoint, though deserving credit for showing the danger of
overly distancing the individual from the real world and from the traditional and known ways to gather experience, still clings to categories of
thought of the past century, and is unable to effectively embrace the new
reality already affecting us.
Complexes and desires require conscious acknowledgement so they
can be expressed and satisfied in the world and this signifies personal development and growth. One can embrace a desire or complex positively
by fulfilling its call. This takes resilient psychological work to determine
how the complex can be fulfilled in the world of competing interpersonal
or intrapersonal desires. Jung argued that there is archetype energy from
a collective unconscious in each person that flows into a personal unconscious (Ryckman, 2008, p.84). This psychic energy from the collective unconscious is recognisable as emotional energy or vitality to fulfil a desire.
This psychic energy can be expressed and satisfied in the world or they
can be unsatisfied or ignored by the ego resulting in psychopathology.
Reaching the self-archetype is the ultimate goal and process of healthy
wellbeing in Jungian psychoanalysis (Cambray, 2009, p.34; Ewen, 2003,
p.69). Jung defined the Self as an archetype of psychic energy that commands and integrates the ego personality (Schultz & Schultz, 2004,
p.107). The self-archetype is encountered when the complexes and desires
are acknowledged by the conscious ego and are allowed expression and
satisfaction in the world. The self-archetype can become most salient to
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the ego following an intense struggle to overcome conflicting desires or
complexes (Corsini & Wedding, 2010, p.128). This process is described in
Jung’s last stage of his therapy called transformation. The process of individuation to become an authentic self occurs as desires and complexes
are continually embraced, satisfied and integrated into the world of the
conscious ego.
During individuation the increased knowledge of the collective unconscious unshackles significant amounts of psychic energy that had not
been expressed or satisfied in the world. This release of psychic energy
from the unconscious allows consciousness and unconsciousness to come
into contact with a new individuated self. These experiences are the ultimate goal of personality development (Feist et al., 2012, p.113).
Psychoanalysis theorists argue that the conscious ego arises out of the
unconscious energy pushing to be expressed in the world (Ewen, 2003,
p.45; Ryckman, 2008, p.37). However if the desires presented by the unconscious to the ego are ignored the ego can be damaged by the ignored
desires which remain unsatisfied in the unconscious. Desires and complexes arise in parallel and are subjective and therefore can conflict with
other subjective desires and complexes. Numerous desires and complexes
manifest intrapersonally and in the interpersonal sphere and therefore
complexes can compete to be expressed.
Heidigger
This paper argues that an individual needs to understand and resolve the
reasons for a conflict of desires when encountering unconcealed situations described by Heidegger as unreadiness-to-hand (Heidegger &
Stambaugh, 1996, p.69). Heidegger explains that a human being reveals
itself through its understanding of its unconcealment of being. Beingthere in the world at any moment of consciousness is the unconcealment
of being so being or other beings can be experienced. Unconcealment indicates that a being unconceals itself in its being.
In addition, Heidegger argued that human life mostly involves absorption and purposeful engagement in the world (Blattner, 2006, p.48).
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hand. For example, when I am writing this paper I am absorbed in aiming to produce the letters on the screen through using the keyboard. I undertake this task while watching the screen and without having to reflect
on where the keys are. However this experience may be disrupted if the
keyboard breaks. When this happens, I have encountered the world as
unready-to-hand.
In Being and Time (Heidegger & Stambaugh, 1996, p.69), Heidegger
explains that ready-to-hand can convert into being conspicuous and selfreflective if the task a person is involved in breaks or becomes unusable in
some way (Blattner, 2006, p.158). For example, I might want to go to the
movies but my friend wants to go to the park. Here is an example of a
conflict of desires. This situation becomes conspicuous and unready-tohand and I see that my friend and I have a problem in our existence because our desires conflict. This situation may be able to be easily resolved
but in a more extreme circumstance, something may reveal itself by being
entirely absent and unready-to-hand. The intention or desire of that person then meets resistance from an obtrusive world.
For example, I may have an exam to attend but my friend has their
graduation they want me to attend at the same time. This situation of
conflicting desires is more difficult to resolve than the previous example
and one can imagine a situation which presents even more difficulty. For
example, I may have a friend who is addicted to drugs and I want to help
them stop. The resolution of this situation which is unready-to-hand is
not so easy to resolve.
If a person has a well-developed ego, most of their time in the world
will runs fairly efficiently and unreadiness-to-hand will not be unconcealed. However, occasionally there are breakdowns in the efficient
ready-to-hand. This is where defence mechanisms need to be avoided
and a ‘will to power’ to resolve the conflict of desire is required so life
returns to the fulfilment of desires and being ready-to-hand.
The Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Conflict
There is a variety of literature that advocates that psychophysiological
stress occurs during interpersonal conflict and results in activating the
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use of defence mechanisms (Cramer, 2006, p.7; Hentschel, Smith, Draguns, & Ehlers, 2004, p.325). In addition, this research also indicates that
the greater the stress, the greater the need for the defence mechanism.
Stress activates the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and an increased
use of defence mechanism is found with an intensified physiological
provocation by the ANS.
Behavioural actions during interpersonal conflict have been named
temporary response modes (Frijda, Kuipers, & Ter Schure, 1989, p.100).
Response modes lead to a certain behavioural tendency to act in a situation (Frijda et al., 1989, p.100). These action modes or plans can develop
from regular and past conflict circumstances (Greene, 1984, p.291). A
classic example of action plans is explained by (Davitz, 1969, p.60) which
are called (moving toward, moving against, moving away). Those individuals whose action plan is moving toward the conflict can undertake a direct and constructive conflict approach. In contrast, a moving against
plan involves a direct but antagonistic or competitive method. Finally,
moving away ignores the conflict (Canary & Cupach, 1988, p.28). Consequently, it can be appreciated that moving against and moving away
plans both activate defence mechanisms by removing the acknowledgment of one or both of the desires in conflict. Those individuals who use
defence mechanisms to eliminate the psychophysiological stress or angst
of the situation are likely to use action plans that dominate control over
the opposing conflict or ignore both of the conflicting desires.
The ideas presented in this paper support the work of (GrzegolowskaKlarkowska, 1991) cited in (Hentschel et al., 2004, p.615) who suggests
that an informational discrepancy is a primary precursor for initiating
defence mechanisms. An information discrepancy increases sympathetic
nervous system activity resulting in the experience of anxiety and this is
believed to be caused by an inability of the individual to resolve the conflict. Extreme levels of sympathetic nervous system activation and anxiety can be experienced as psychologically and physically unpleasant. Consequently, defence mechanisms are used to reduce the acknowledgment
of the discrepancy and which can reduce the angst and physiological
stress. Interestingly, (Grzegolowska-Klarkowska, 1991) cited in
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(Hentschel et al., 2004, p. 615) argues that defence mechanisms can be
activated in a chronological strategy. Firstly the defence mechanisms of
denial and repression are efforts to obstruct the encoding of the conflict
in memory. Secondly, projection and reaction formation can be activated
as protection from the anxiety and stress if the conflict is already encoded
in memory.
This work on the physiological and cognitive responses to a conflict of
desires can benefit the ideas already presented in this paper. Specifically,
instead of moving against or away from the conflict because of the stress
and angst it produces it is more effective to resist the use of defence
mechanisms to leave the conflict unconcealed presented by unreadinessto-hand. In other words, instead of reacting automatically using Freudian defence mechanisms to conceal the conflict and avoid recognising the
conflict of desires it is more effective to move toward the angst of conflict.
This can permit the conflict to remain in consciousness allowing the possibility for both desires to be integrated and therefore satisfied and not
ignored.
As has just been noted, the stress and angst of conflict can be psychologically and physically unpleasant. However if the conflict of desires are
not resolved this too will produce psychological and physiological disturbance as the desires will continue to need to be satisfied through the
unconscious impulses. Consequently, the most effective strategy to avoid
mental illness is to embrace Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ (Nietzsche, 2011;
Reginster & Reginster, 2009, p.103) and move toward the constructive
resolution of the conflict. This then allows the person to reflect on how
both desires can be expressed freely and satisfied by the mutual recognition of an intrapersonal or interpersonal ego of desire. By consciously
understanding how conflicting desires can be satisfied, the ego can
“differentiate oneself from these unconscious contents by personifying
them, and at the same time to bring them into relationship with consciousness” (Jung, 2011, p.187).
It is also important to recognise that the experience of unreadiness-to
-hand unconceals possible situations where authenticity can be prevented. As a result, the conflict of desires should not be moved against or
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away from with the use of defence mechanisms that avoid the immediate
stress and angst of the conflict. The use of defence mechanisms to ignore
the conflicting desires equates to Sartre’s idea of ‘bad faith’ (Sartre, 2013,
p.86) which is an act to be ignorant toward authentic choices and actions.
This situation of unreadiness-to hand needs to be moved toward, dwelled
on and recognised by the person to allow both desires to find a way to
expression and fulfilment rather than being concealed as a complex in the
unconscious by the use of defence mechanisms.
Deleuze
The unconcealment of a conflict of desires can be further clarified as the
inability of what Deleuze calls a ‘force’ (Jun & Smith, 2011, p.96) to fulfil
the desires results in the phenomenal experience of angst, unreadiness-to
-hand or psychophysiological stress. Deleuze appears to argue that a
‘force’ means any ability to create a change or becoming. Deleuze argues
that all of reality is a manifestation and result of the exchanged interaction between forces (Parr, 2010, p.111).
Deleuze also explains a concept called an assemblage which is constructed when a set of forces unites together (Jun & Smith, 2011, p.96;
Parr, 2010, p.111). The result of this industrious and dynamic assemblage
is a new method of expression of forces (e.g. new behaviour or idea to
resolve a conflict). The assemblage is certain to yield a different reality, by
making various expected and unexpected linkages (Parr, 2010, p.18).
When a force of a desire is not fulfilled this can be conceptualised as not
attaining the form of an assemblage for an individual’s expression abilities. As a result, the individual needs to re-evaluate (moving toward the
conflict) how that force can be incorporated into an assemblage to
achieve the satisfaction of the authentic desire.
When the force to fulfil a desire is not formed into an assemblage and
is not satisfied by the unconcealment of unreadiness-to-hand, the use of
Jung’s psychological functions (sensing, thinking, intuiting, and feeling)
(Schultz & Schultz, 2004, p.101) may also provide a psychological method
to elucidate the nature and resolution to the conflict. This can take place
during the action plan of moving toward an impasse of conflicting desires
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to develop an authentic solution. One should be aware that problems in
the formation of an assemblage may arise if any one of these four psychological functions is too dominant. Jung argues that a well adapted and
integrated personality would be capable of utilizing all the functions in
dealing with life experiences to develop the ego (Schultz & Schultz, 2004,
p.101).
Consequently, what is important for the ego to accomplish is to form
an assemblage to attain the authentic desire emanating from the unconscious. In addition, the individual should stay in conscious contact with
the conflict and to not conceal the conflict if a solution is not forthcoming. The individual must keep the conflict within consciousness as a ‘will
to power’ to overcome the angst, stress and the unreadiness-to-hand to
find the solution to satisfy both desires.
Jung and the Transcendent Function
Although there is no evidence of Jung acknowledging Hegel, Jung describes a Hegelian method of sublation in his psychoanalytic method
called ‘The Transcendent Function’(Miller, 2004). Instead of developing
this idea from Hegel, Jung appears to have derived the idea of the transcendent function from the procedures of medieval alchemy which were
comparable to his psychoanalysis. Jung says “The secret of alchemy was
in fact the transcendent function, the transformation of personality
through the blending and fusion of the noble with the base components,
of the differentiated with the inferior functions, of the conscious with the
unconscious” (Jung, 1928, p.219 cited in Miller, 2004, p.69).
Miller (2004, p.5) explains that the transcendent function allows psychological growth leading to individuation. The process of the transcendent function leads the person to find the self-archetype between the intersection of the conscious and unconscious mind. These encounters with
the self-archetype expand the ego and guide the ego in a teleological way
toward becoming existentially authentic (Corsini & Wedding, 2010,
p.116). The transcendent function reconciles opposite desires or complexes by moving toward them. This transcendent function synthesizes
the conflict into the ego with a solution by the means of sublated third
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expression of desire that is different from both the previously opposing
desires but unites both to allow their expression and satisfaction.
An Example of the Transcendent Function and the ‘Will to Power”
The transcendent function could be activated in many different ways but
to provide a clearer idea a detailed example is appropriate. The transcendent function arises when an individual is under intense mental pressure to integrate opposing desires that can arise throughout one’s life. An
example of a stressful situation that precedes the integration of opposite
desires may unfold as follows. One day a therapist may meet a distressed
individual who is cognitively split as to how to resolve a conflict with a
close friend. Intuitively the client knows their friend is not expressing
their self authentically (i.e. the friend does not take responsibility for undesirable life events and is unable to plan a future perhaps because of a
lack of self-esteem). The client is upset because her friend does not want
to listen to the advice that may bring authenticity. Furthermore, the situation becomes more distressing for the client because her friend has severed communication between the two of them. This is distressing and
psychologically painful for the client because the future looks bleak (from
the client’s perspective) for the friend who appears to be digging a deeper
inauthentic hole.
This friendship and communication disconnection could hypothetically arise in many ways but one may be the fact that the client’s friend
recognises that an authentic life can be difficult and tries to flee from the
resolute work of authenticity by denying its reality. However the client
explains that she cannot give up on her friend as this would result in her
own illness as she would be denying her authentic desire to help someone
she intuitively knows is not being authentic. Nevertheless this option is
not attractive for the client because at the same time the client is in such
distress over the situation for multiple reasons including that she is empathetic and feeling the pain of her friend’s suffering, the client is also
suffering because she has lost a close friend and to make the situation
worse the client is scorned by her friend for the help she tries to provide.
The client’s friend is has fallen into and is blinded by the inauthentic life
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and sees the client’s advice as a hurtful and an evil influence. Consequently, the friend of the client realises that the severing of contact is required because of the client’s insistence of her friend to be authentic. At
this point the stalemate, conflict and opposition is evident and the mutual
resolution does not appear anywhere in sight.
This stalemate may persist for months or more and the conflict remains unresolved causing distress for the client and her friend who are
both unable to find a path to authentic expression. How could this difficult situation be resolved? Should the client give up on herself and her
friend to achieve authenticity? Would this be an authentic choice?
Wouldn’t this be an example of a defence mechanism to avoid the acknowledgment of a conflict of desires? The healthy resolution only appears to avoid defence mechanisms that cover up the conflict and to stay
true to authenticity. But how can this be achieved with so much pain in
this conflicting situation? Is avoiding pain authentic? Is this the solution?
Did not Nietzsche say “Only great pain is the liberator of the spirit” (Nietzsche, 2010, p.36)? Have we found an entry point to synthesise
the conflicting opposites of the client and her friend’s desires? Can accepting the pain and suffering by the client that is associated with helping
her friend allow the possibility for authenticity of both the client and her
friend to be achieved? Have these self-reflective questions provided a position to move conceptually to greater self-awareness as to how authentic
desires can be expressed by the client? It seems the answer to this last
question is yes. If the client can appreciate that the pain and suffering that
she is currently enduring is required to stay true to her own and her
friends’ authenticity, a transcendence of her current ego outlook can occur.
Some words from Nietzsche regarding pain and pleasure are appropriate here. These quotes will also be valuable in the final sections of this
paper that describe some of Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ philosophy in detail. This clinical example of the transcendent function in a hypothetical
therapist session demonstrates that it is in alignment with Nietzsche’s
‘will to power’, the will to “power comes from self-mastery, not dominance over others. His joy arises from a transcendent dimension of perTranscending Psycho-Physiological Angst
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therapist session demonstrates that it is in alignment with Nietzsche’s
‘will to power’, the will to “power comes from self-mastery, not dominance over others. His joy arises from a transcendent dimension of personhood (his true self), not from satisfaction of ordinary appetites” (Murphy, 1992, p.196). Furthermore in the “On the aim of science”
section of The Gay Science Nietzsche says:
What? The final aim of science should be to give man as much
pleasure and as little displeasure as possible? But what if pleasure
and displeasure are so intertwined that whoever wants as much
as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other
– that whoever wants to learn to 'jubilate up to the heavens' must
also be prepared for 'grief unto death'? (Nietzsche, 2010, p.37-38)
Even today you still have the choice: either as little displeasure as
possible, in short, lack of pain [...] or as much displeasure as possible as the price for the growth of a bounty of refined pleasures
and joys that hitherto have seldom been tasted. Should you decide on the former, i.e. if you want to decrease and diminish people's susceptibility to pain, you also have to decrease and diminish their capacity for joy. With science one can actually promote
either of these goals! So far it may still be better known for its
power to deprive man of his joys and make him colder, more statue-like, more stoic. But it might yet be found to be the great giver
of pain! - And then its counterforce might at the same time be
found: its immense capacity for letting new galaxies of joy flare
up! (Nietzsche, 2010, p.38)
Prior to the self-transcendence, the client could not tolerate the pain and
could not accept the suffering that she was receiving from trying to help
her friend and herself achieve authenticity. The client could not appreciate any value in the emotional pain of the situation and therefore was inclined to disregard her authentic intuition regarding her friend’s authenticity. Consequently the client met a question prior to the transcendent
function that needs to be answered authentically to possibly synthesise
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ticity to attempt to escape your current emotional pain or will you accept
and live with your emotional pain and not accept inauthenticity?
The self-transcendence in this situation can only take place through
affirming the second option as the first option denies an authentic desire
and no self-transcendence to move toward fulfilling this desire can take
place. Consequently if the client can embrace the second option and accept the pain of the situation, transcendence in self-understanding can
take place and the client can stay true to her authentic intuition and desire. Consequently this acceptance can lead to Jung’s transcendent function where the client can come into psychological contact with the selfarchetype as the intersection between the conscious and unconscious
mind has been bridged by the conscious acceptance of pain that was previously denied by the client. This encounter with the self-archetype expands the ego awareness and guides the person to live authentically with
the removal of defence mechanisms that prevented authenticity. By embracing the ‘will to power’ to accept the pain of the situation this client
has sublated the conflict of desires so that future conflicts of this type can
be avoided and the desire can now be expressed and satisfied by the ego
because of an increased self-awareness.
Hegel
The work of Hegel is now important to introduce to conceptually clarify
the transcendent function. Hegel contends that the entire history of the
world consists in the development of moving from an alienated consciousness to complete self-consciousness or self-knowledge of itself
(Stern, 2002, p.168). Self-alienation provides the impetus to discover the
self-knowledge of itself, so consciousness finds its home in the world. The
development of consciousness occurs through building on the understanding it has received from its past errors from previous self-alienated
experience. It is the process of sublation or ‘determinate negation’ (Hegel, 2004, p.51) where consciousness negates, conserves, and
constructs from past experiences to achieve its ultimate freedom and
complete self-understanding.
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By identifying conflicts of desire the attainment of satisfying these
authentic desires can be achieved in the same manner as the Hegelian
dialectic. The acknowledgment of the negative knowledge of a conflict of
desires, consciousness can know that the desire cannot be satisfied in the
situation that produced the experience of unreadiness-to-hand and the
associated psychophysiological response of stress or angst. While the
failure to achieve the desire does not convey how to satisfy the desire, it
does indicate how not to satisfy the desire. Consequently Hegel’s ideas
can be integrated with Jung and Deleuze. As sublation or the transcendent function continues to take place through a person’s life, the assemblage to achieve the satisfaction of authentic desires becomes more concrete. In psychological terms, the ego is strengthened and the authentic
self emerges through individuation through the construction of an assemblage out of the process of sublation to achieve satisfaction of unconscious desires.
The ability of an individual to undertake the Hegelian method of sublation to resolve conflicting desires is a result of moving toward the conflict through a ‘will to power’ to dominate the resistance that prevents the
expression of both desires. This ‘will to power’ does not mean to imply
the domination of (moving against) or ignorance (moving away) of either
desire but to move toward both desires through their integration into a
sublated third desire that incorporates both opposing desires (Reginster
& Reginster, 2009, p.114). An authentic individuated self is capable of
confronting the external world of desires and their internal world of desires. In contrast to moving against or away from the conflict, mentally
healthy individuals are realistic as they are flexible in the achievement of
their desires (moving toward the conflict). In addition, these individuals
are not pessimistic about impasses (unreadiness-to-hand) in the achievement of their desire but are able to use this resistance as developing their
personality and ego.
Nietzsche
As a way to Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ which is the striving to overcome a
resistance, an intrapersonal or interpersonal ego can develop a Deleuzean
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assemblage to create new ways of functioning. This will enable the satisfaction of both desires which otherwise will remain as an unconscious
complex and create mental illness. In this paper, the assemblage should
be conceptualised as a functional entity for experiencing the world that
unconceals possibilities for the satisfaction of desire. The assemblage that
is developed through the ‘will to power’ to overcome the resistance and
angst of competing desires also unconceals new possibilities for authentic
living and therefore individuates the person in a deeper way that was not
present before the resistance was encountered and resolved.
In this paper the ‘will to power’ means the conscious resoluteness,
openness, acceptance and expectation of encountering resistance, angst
and stress through conflicting desires. This ‘will’ of an individual has the
patience to develop the power to solve the conflict of desires which allows
both desires to be expressed and not ignored. In addition, the ‘will to
power’ should be thought of as the complete removal of defence mechanisms that can be used when encountering the resistance and angst of
competing desires. The mindset of the individual with a ‘will to power’ is
one of moving toward problem solving and self-transcendence. The person recognises that resistance can be encountered through competing
desires and strives to overcome the conflict by sustained problem solving
instead of running from the stress or angst of the problem. Such an individual recognises the authentic reward of the solution far outweighs the
effort invested to resolve the conflict.
Consequently, this paper has sufficiently argued that the need for the
resolute acceptance, openness and expectation of meeting resistance of
another desire is necessary to avoid psychological illness and the use of
defence mechanisms which conceals the conflict from consciousness. An
assemblage can be built by the ego which means the development of the
power to satisfy both desires as the ‘will to power’ permits the
“expansion, incorporation, growth… against something that resists” (Nietzsche, 2011, p.374) (the unreadiness-to-hand and psychophysiological stress/angst of conflict).
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Analytical Psychology, Summary and Conclusion
Finally, it is important to demonstrate that this paper has highlighted a
process similar to Jungian psychoanalysis (Analytical Psychology) under
a different light. In Jung’s therapy he highlights four stages, Confession,
Elucidation, Education and Transformation (Corsini & Wedding, 2010,
p.127-128). The confession stage equates to the recognition of the unconcealment of the unreadiness-to-hand and the psychophysiological stress
of the situation involving conflicting desires. This stage should involve
incorporating the ‘will to power’ to move toward the conflict which
avoids using defence mechanisms to conceal the conflict and angst. Elucidation and Education is the clarification for the reasons of this conflict.
This can be achieved through the use of the Jung’s psychological functions (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting) to understand the nature
of the conflict through a reflection on the past failures to achieve the satisfaction of the desire. Finally, transformation is applying the education
and reflection into action and building a desiring assemblage through the
transcendence or sublation of past conflicts. This can allow the expression and self-realization of individuation and authentic living through
the fulfilment and resolution of competing desires.
Transcendence, problem solving and moving toward conflicting desires occurs by working through Jung’s Transcendent Function or the
Hegelian dialectic of sublation of the past negative fulfilment of the desires. The fulfilment can be eventually achieved through finding a solution to the negative outcomes of the past through the recollection of error in reflection and striving to unite the satisfaction of both desires. Furthermore, the avoidance of defence mechanisms that prevent transcendence and problem solving following moments of unreadiness–to-hand
and psychophysiological stress allows Jungian individuation to take place
(Ewen, 2003, p.69; Schultz & Schultz, 2004, p.107). Jung considered personal growth as an evolving procedure that can take place throughout
everyday of life. With the suitable resolution of conflicting desires, an
individual moves toward the achievement of individuation and the fulfilment of their authentic destiny.
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In conclusion, by reflecting on past and anticipating future situations
where there could be a conflict of desires, the individual can plan their
future in the present to allow the desire to be expressed without a conflict
to impede it. By advocating the acknowledgment of moments of unreadiness-to-hand and a contemplation of the past and the anticipation of future conflicts of desires in the present moment of reflection, this paper
supports Heidegger’s argument that “Temporality reveals itself as the
meaning of authentic care" (Heidegger & Stambaugh, 1996, p.300). By
avoiding defence mechanisms that move against or away from the reality
of an unreadiness-to-hand situation of conflict, a ‘will to power’ allows
the mutual recognition of conflicting interpersonal or intrapersonal desires to remain in consciousness. This can allow the possibility for the
discrepancy to be eventually resolved to allow both desires to achieve
their freedom of expression. Accordingly, one must take “seriously the
pain, the work and the patience of the negative” (Hyppolite, 1997, p.103).
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