In Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, Foucault comprises a history of the treatment of sex in society. Foucault begins with the 17^th century which is commonly seen as an “age of repression” marked by the censorship of sex. He states that “in order to gain mastery over [sex] in reality, it had first been necessary to subjugate it at the level of language, […], and extinguish the words that rendered it too visibly present” (1502). This speaks to the social construction of language and language’s power to help construct the world around us. In order to master a concept, you must control it figuratively through its representation in language. Though there was seemingly more censorship in the 17^th century, Foucault asserts that there was also a “multiplication if discourses concerning sex in the field of exercise of power itself: an institutional incitement to speak about it…” (1503). The increase of discourses surrounding sex on the institutional level which has a dual function of gathering knowledge and exercising power. The accumulation of knowledge engaged in by an institution on the subject of sex specifies its categories.

                Foucault zeroes in on the effects of confession and the influence of the Catholic Pastoral on sexuality. Sex was mostly about the physical details of the sexual act such as the places touched and positions held. As discretion became favored the “scope” of the confession began to expand and encompass not just the “flesh” but the “thoughts, desires, voluptuous imaginings, delectations, combined movements of the body and soul” that might accompany a sin of the flesh (1505).  Sexual acts became more significant as they were merely an extension of inward processes -specifically desire. Sex is successfully re-constructed as belonging to the “whole man”. It was a unification of the external (actions) with the internal (thoughts and desires) (1504). An increased emphasis on self-reflection and examination caused not only the subject to be vigilant but others as well. He states that “under the authority of a language that had been carefully expurgated so that it was no longer directly named, […], by a discourse that aimed to allow it no obscurity, no respite” (1504). This emphasizes power of language as a tool to construct and re-construct the concept of sex. By transforming desire into discourse but prohibiting the use of the word sex it increases the associations which in turn makes the concept a more concrete construction and more present in reality – an expanding web of associations.

                My understanding of the “mill of speech” from its mention in the text is that language is transformative. Discourse transformed the external into the internal and sought “ways of rendering [sex] morally acceptable and technically useful” (1504). Foucault uses the figure of Marquis de Sade as an example of “transforming sex into discourse” (1504). Scandalous literature is put forth as a type of case study in how the passions related (sex and desire) are present in reality through human actions and/or the inward workings of human beings. Sade states, “Your narrations must be decorated with the most numerous and searching details; the precise way and extent to which we may judge how the passion you describe relates to human manners…” (1504-1505). This connotes a probe into human nature and is in keeping with the previously established tradition of confession.

      I really enjoyed reading Freud as he explains the concepts of dreams and their underlying meaning. This semester I am taking psychology and we went over Freud and his theories. We took things literally as dreams having an underlying meaning. An example that has occurred frequently in my dreams is the dream of my teeth cracking and falling out. According to my psychology class Freud saw this dream as a result of my priorities falling apart and not being able to speak my mind. 

        However reading this article also brought other topics to my attention. The concept of our dreams being filtered when we wake up. The concept of our dreams being filtered demonstrates that our conscious mind suppresses some of our desires. Freud brings up the concept of our ideas being suppressed and our desires being halted by our own mind. 

       When we wake up from a dream I believe we forget 90% of our dreams in the first 10 minutes being awake. Now at this time we lose a lot of information and can recall certain points in our dreams, at this point we condense our dreams into a form we can remember. 

      In class we discussed how our childhood creates certain primal urges as we grow up. An example that everyone is somewhat recognizable is the concept of a cougar. If a boy lost his mother at a very young age it is very common for him to date older women that would fit the “mother” role in his life. This goes into the concept of the Oedipus story, where he goes and becomes attached to his mother in a sexual way. Some people will never publicly express that they would want to have sexual intentions with their mothers, however I think everyone in some way do follow this.  There is a very famous saying that I actually believe to be true which is a man grows up to marry his own mother in a metaphorical way. I think men are drawn to girlfriend’s that have characteristics of their mother. They may not see it at first, but for example Eminem in some of his songs demonstrate that he has dated women that resemble his own mother. Freud’s concept can be found in a number of places. I really enjoyed reading this because I can still find topics that can relate it to today.

Dreams and desires manifest themselves in many different ways for different people. Women who are cougars simply enjoy the unwavering attention that young men give to women, party due to their young age and ignorance as to what an actual relationship entails.

The dream of unwavering youthful love has latent content much like in Hamlet. While the manifest content of that kind of dream is the relationship, the latent content is the desire to own the relationship in a masculine sense for these women who would not be afforded such domination from a man their age or older.

I quite liked that comment because it not only brings in Freud but also the previous reading of Taboo and Sex. While we may be quick to judge these desires, we must also be aware of where they stem from and how we like the unconscious mind attempt to censor our the real world; we displace strange desires into the realm of taboo and dismiss it by disfiguring something very real.

A response to reinforce Jcastillos cougar comment. 

Go cougars?

What Freud brilliantly realizes is that we mar our unconscious so that it better fits into the reality that we prefer. The paradoxical nature of our minds is that reality within our minds is a completely different entity from the material world (the physical), yet we accept what we know, even though it is a censored version of what is real.

This semiotic approach to dreams allows those who would like to interpret the meaning of their dreams to look past what they saw in the dream, and trace back the origins of those images to what created them in the unconscious.

The condensation of latent content of dreams is equitable not only to the dream itself but of the unconscious in general as well. What we call the unconscious is actually the primordial soup of all apparent perception we have (the obvious portion of our minds and experience). When Freud says that the unconscious is condensed, is because what creates the visible is the workings of our mind that we just allow to happen.

In the unconscious our minds ‘displace’ what it deems to be harmful to us, and rather than allowing the self to deal with this threat it displaces the agony that this element represents with something else (something kinder to our sensibilities).

In order to circumvent the shields displacement we must learn that like a rebus puzzle a dream has a language of its own despite it seeming with direction. Interpreting dreams as symbols that allude to other things that are at the core of the original meaning of it we can more deeply read our dreams and discover their actual content.

            Sigmund Freud has caught my attention with his reading of Interpretation of Dreams. He talks about the reading of Oedipus Rex to show us that according to him we as humans try to resist the taboo of incest. As he brings up the meaning behind the story of the prophecy of how he ends up killing his father and marries his mother. This is what Freud says to a T of our primal exotic desire for our mother and as well to get rid of the father, but that we try to resist these desires. When I read this in high school, I did not care much for this book especially how my classmate read it in such a funny voice and because at that point the common disease of “senioritis” had gotten to me. I understood some of the book because the teacher explained the book to, us but I did not see this “primitive actions” that has been explained in class.

            When this was explained, I was the student to talk about “nowadays primitive actions.” It is rare that I talk in class, but when I explained the “daddy issues” that women have from missing a father figure in their life and the “cougar fetish” that men have towards older women, I never that of people responding the way they did, such as making Josie choke up on trying to participating and saying “WOW.” As you say there is no right or wrong answer in this course, but getting a reaction like that, did what I have to say go too far? I mean it is somewhat true, according to Freud, because though men do not kill their fathers and have sexual relations with their mothers, going after older women is not a comfortable “norm” in society and relates to the “incest taboo.”

            Oedipus Rex is not the only piece of literature that supports how we try to have “primal repression.” Hamlet is another work that I read, well skimmed, in high school that has murder of family in it. Hamlet kills many people in the process of trying to kill his uncle, the new king since he married the queen, who happens to be the wife of his brother who he murdered for the throne. The difference between Hamlet and Oedipus Rex is that Oedipus blinds himself to punish himself for acting upon these “primal actions” while Hamlet is killed following his mother’s death and tells someone to not commit suicide to tell his story. To me, I never really thought of these works of literature interesting. My opinion has changed after reading Freud and from our class discussion on Tuesday explains our “primal repression.”      

Based on the previous understanding of the unconscious mind, Sigmund Freud makes an important distinction between the conscious and the unconscious mind. The “manifest” conscious part of your mind also known as the dream content is the tip of the iceberg content of dreams. Like now waking up from a dream and recalling the images from your dream but not fully understanding it or interpreting it to the fullest. According to Freud, there is an ego and an id and a superego (the part of a person’s mind that acts as a self-critical conscience). Furthermore, Freud’s Iceberg Theory explains basically, that you the conscious level, which would be the part of the iceberg above water that you can see, and according to Freud, that’s where your perceptions and thoughts are. Then there is the preconscious, which is a part of the iceberg that is submerged in the water (not too deep) and that’s the part where your memories and stored knowledge are. The last part is the unconscious, the part of the iceberg that is submerged deep in the water, the part that is usually unseen, where your fears, violent motives, dark desires, shameful experiences are store. This reminds me of the novel ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson, where Dr. Jekyll is basically the conscious level, the preconscious level is how both Jekyll and Hyde are aware of each other’s actions. The unconscious level is ALL Mr. Hyde who behaves in such bad manner and cruelty that at times even Jekyll doesn’t even know about until he learns it from an outsider observing Mr. Hyde.
The “Latent” unconscious part of your mind also known as the ‘dream thoughts’ are the analysis of your dream. Freud states, “but just as all neurotic symptoms, and, for that matter, dreams, are capable of being ‘over-interpreted’ and indeed need to be, if they are to fully understood… and are open to more than a single interpretation” Freud demonstrates this, like said before through analyzing dreams to access the functions of the unconscious mind, which is not as easy to get to through the waking thought process. Images in dreams are often not what they appear to be and needs a deep interpretation if you are to inform on the structures of the conscious mind.
According to Freud, our childhood experiences also play an important role in your unconscious mind that expresses within the dream thoughts. As dreams collects bits and pieces of the manifest part from our past, this material can also be connected to your early childhood experiences. I’m not sure but I think Freud is trying to say that the images that we expressed through dreams are most likely our desires that have been kept on reserved or repressed but still remain an effective part of the unconscious mind. Probably? Dreams are never just on the surface, whatever your dreams may look like, it actually mean something else. The story about Oedipus, free will vs. destiny and Hamlet was quiet interesting and sad. One reason you shouldn’t ask to see what your future holds (joke).
Freud’s “The Uncanny” was also interesting, relating to your past experiences. It is something familiar but odd at the same time. Freud states, “that class of the frightening which leads back to something long… foreign, and yet familiar” establishing that “the uncanny” is placed in a circle for the repressed. It “is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old… established in the mind and become alienated from it only through the process of repression,” repressing meaning restraining the impulses of desires, I guess in your dreams.

Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams forces us all to take a closer look at ourselves.  Freud gives a summary of the story of Oedipus, and explains the well-known Oedipus Complex to the reader but then takes a turn and tells us that the reason we enjoy the story of Oedipus (and not other tragedies of destiny) is because we actually relate to the character of Oedipus as Freud says “his destiny moves us only because it might have been ours…(816).”  Other authors cannot mimic a tragedy of destiny in the same way because these specific factors are the most relatable.  However, unlike Oedipus, Freud says, we are at an advantage because we have been able to “detach” ourselves from the destiny (urges) Oedipus’ path was set on.  If we think to ourselves, very few of us will actually admit to having an urge to sleep with our mothers and kill our fathers.  Skepticism arose for me as Freud says, “we live in ignorance of these wishes,” because it seems bizarre for every human to have these innate desires.

Freud also draws comparison between the story of Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.  He likens Oedipus and Hamlet to one another.  While Oedipus kills his father and sleeps with his mother, Hamlet does neither of these things.  His father is already dead, and his mother has married his uncle.  Hamlet’s mission so to speak during the play is to take revenge upon his father’s throne, by killing his uncle.  And with this in mind, Freud believes that the reason Hamlet cannot kill his uncle throughout the play is that he becomes aware of the “repressed” desires he innately has.  Freud says, “Hamlet is able to do anything—except take vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father’s place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized.  Thus, the loathing which should drive him on to revenge is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish (818).” I do not think that Hamlet had an enlightening realization or a moment where he remotely believes that perhaps Claudius has done him a favor of sorts.  The fact that Hamlet behaves aggressively and can wield a sword does not necessarily have anything to do with an Oedipus complex.  Hamlet’s hesitation arises from his own doubt in himself and the ghost, as well as his waiting for the confirmation of Claudius’ guilt.  At this point, I think Freud is really stretching the idea and comparison.

Freud’s “Interpretation Of Dreams” allowed me to clarify a few concepts I had previously studied in psychology, but was never able to fully grasp and understand. The story of King Oedipus was an interesting way of explaining the childhood urges or impulses that drive early developmental behavior in children. Freud explains that the just as it occurs in the story of King Oedipus, humans are bound to be attracted to the force of destiny or to the predetermination of our lives. to develop the same impulses that the Oracle forced upon Oedipus to hate his father and feel attraction to his mother.

Honestly I really did not understand how the Freudian concept of child development contributed to interpreting dreams, but from what I grasped I think he is trying to use the interpretation of a literary work through a writer’s motivation for writing such literary work in order to say that: Just as books and works of literature cannot be fully interpreted neither can dreams. (Did I explain myself correctly on this one?) HELP!!

Now, moving forward with what I understood of the work on condensation, Freud explains that COLLECTING the thoughts we have of the dreams and analyzing them into much larger and deeper concepts is the process of condensation. My understanding of Freud’s condensation sort of leads me to believe that it is similar to turning a book or novel into a movie. He says that writing out a dream could probably take up half a page, but that the analysis of it can take much more than that. Well movies are perhaps the opposite of this process because a book that contains hundreds of pages like for example “Harry Potter” can be condensed into a 2 hour movie. Therefore I feel this is kind of the opposite of what Freud believes people do with dreams as they are short and laconic, but in the analysis become much longer. According to Freud there really isn’t a way to know when one has completed condensing a dream because it is subject to interpretation and this leaves margin for additional analysis and ideas that a person might add.

Antonio Gramsci’s piece titled, “The Formation of the Intellectuals,” definitely serves as food for thought.  The first line of his essay states, “Are intellectuals an autonomous and independent social group, or does every social group its own particular specialized category of intellectuals (1002)?”  Upon reading this, I sided with the idea that every social group has its own intellectuals and not the other way around.  Reason being that, to me, an intellectual has superior knowledge, but this knowledge varies by social and group settings.  Antonion Gramsci goes on to explain the differences between the two types of intellectuals, which rank as “most important.”

The two types of intellectuals are organic and traditional.  Organic intellectuals s are created as each new class is creating and traditional individuals stem from those, which already have a permanent place in society (clergy, priests, etc.).  Gramsci states, “Thus it is to be noted that the mass of the peasantry, although it performs an essential function in the world of production, does not elaborate its own “organic” intellectuals, nor does it “assimilate” any stratum of “traditional” intellectuals, although it is from the peasantry that other social groups draw many of their intellectuals and a high proportion of traditional intellectuals are of peasant origin (1002).”  In other words, Gramsci is saying that while “peasantry” serves as a basis, it does not breed intellectuals of its own kind per say or absorb “traditional” intellectuals; but that intellectuals come out of the peasantry as intellectuals part of different social groups.  Organic intellectuals are bound to class and are bound to production, while traditional intellectuals serve something higher than production (religion).  On the contrary, traditional intellectuals are considered independent by Gramsci, or as we said in class they have a “leftover presence.”  Gramsci states, “every “essential” social group, which emerges into history out of the preceding economic structure, and as an expression of a development of this structure, has found (at least in all of history up to the present) categories of intellectuals already in existence…(1003).”   With this statement, Gramsci describes the finding of traditional intellectuals as already a part of history.  Traditional intellectuals are almost a part of a “higher order.”  In regards to education, we can come to the conclusion that schools are important to Gramsci as they are where exactly intellectuals reside and are produced from, therein making one of the social functions of school to produce intellectuals.