ppd 5

Question 1

Identity

Answer 1

Identity consists of a collection of characteristics that have been assigned to us by ‘the other’. Together, they form a more-or-less coherent package of ideas about where we come from and where we’re going. At the same time, they also tell us how to behave towards our bodies and towards others

Question 2

Identification

Answer 2

The process of attaching some symbol, word, gesture from our own body and/or from the external world to
our identity (constructed ‘me’). This way something becomes ‘mine’

Question 3

Separation as rejection

Answer 3

The process of aiming to detach from something, so that it becomes ‘not mine’. Importantly: we have to distinguish between aspects that never were mine (no identification) and aspects that were mine and were then rejected (identification -> separation). The traces of earlier identifications can remain (unconsciously) part of us after we attempted at separation.
- I am not bastard

Question 4

Separation as creation

Answer 4

• creatively changing the meaning of the messages from the others.
• Assigning words symbols gestures images … to what it means to u

Question 5

Ideology

Answer 5

Can be defined and used in many ways. In this course it refers broadly to “a collection of notions about human relationships and ways of regulating them”. Thus, different ideologies give us conflicting notions of morality

Question 6

Ethics

Answer 6

In this course the term ethics is used to refer to reflection on morality and ideology. Given the conflicting ideologies around us, we have a problem in choosing one over the other. We can either assume our ethical position or try deny it

Question 7

Selbstverschül digte unmundigkeit

Answer 7

A Kantian term referring to a state in which we do not think for ourselves, but blindly rely on authority. The
‘sebstverschuldigt’ refers to the situation where this is NOT due to lack of cognitive skills, but rather to a
lack of courage in thinking.
. In other words, it is the failure to think for oneself and make independent decisions, instead relying on the authority and direction of others.

Question 8

Internal conflict

Answer 8

Refers to the fact that the psychological self is not a neat unity. Refers to the domain of ‘being at odds with
ourselves’, the fact that we are not ‘out of one piece’. It also includes the psychoanalytic unconscious in
this lecture.

Question 9

External conflict

Answer 9

Refers to the fact that the world and its ideologies are not a neat harmonious unity and not ‘out of one piece’. It includes the importance of a critique of ideologies.

Question 10

Symptomatic compromises

Answer 10

Refers to psychoanalytic theory: a symptomatic compromise is a temporary ‘partial solution of and defense against’ a particular constellation of opposing forces. The concept is used here for: (1) symptoms of internal conflict, (2) external conflict, and (3) the relation between internal and external conflict.