Monday, October 10, 2005

A Modest Proposal

I’ve written about two opposing forces in me. One wants me to be a somebody by being recognized as intellectually brilliant. The other wants me to just be my unique self. I had an epiphany of how to reconcile the two. I will write a self-psychoanalytical autobiography describing the forces that cause me to be the way I am. It will be as authentic as possible and so a record and an analysis of my true self. But this self-analysis will be so brilliant and incisive that it will be recognized by others and I will be hailed as great. In that way, through revealing my authentic self I will become a somebody. I will reconcile both drives in a great, transcending, Hegelian synthesis.

5 comments:

Jeff Meyerhoff said...

Colin,

I'm not aware of the first motivation in me. Maybe there's the desire to connect with other people. Certainly the desire for recognition is present.

jhbowden said...

Jeff--

If there is no difference between Jeff and the real Jeff, your synthesis will be doomed from the outset.

Jeff Meyerhoff said...

Jason,

I'm not sure what point you're making. There are many ways to conceive of the self. One is to see that there are many selves and many forces within one. So there can be a true Jeff, false Jeff, striving Jeff, etc. One doesn't have to understand oneself in that way, but it is one common way.

Perhaps you're contending that there is only one Jeff and so the synthesis need not even take place, it already is the case. But this denies the idea of other selves and unconscious forces inside oneself.

Jeff

jhbowden said...

You don't suffer from multi-personality disorder, do you? ;)

Jeff Meyerhoff said...

That's funny, there's another Jason H. Bowden who's a fire-breathing, right-wing ideologue. You two are quite different. Do you know him?

Jeff