The Life of Cognition and the Cognition of Life (Kant)

This chapter examines the conceptualization of life as formative form around 1800. Immanuel Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment is the first book in the German tradition to articulate the new dynamic notion of life as a convergence of mind and nature. For Kant, aesthetic experience is important because it involves an intensification of the life of the mind (including the social dimension of mind as sensus communis) and enables us to develop a regulative notion of organic life. Kant's claim is that to understand the peculiar organization of natural beings, we must view them as products of an intrinsic formative activity, and hence as in some way analogous to the mind's power of cognitive and perceptual synthesis, which we experience most vividly in our encounter with beauty. Aesthetic experience allows us to grasp the nature of human, or symbolic, life and its place within the natural world.

ESPIRITUALIDADE E VIDA SIMBÓLICA

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o conceito de “vida simbólica” de Carl Gustav Jung e associá-lo à noção de espiritualidade. Para Jung, o homem moderno vive uma crise espiritual decorrente da perda de sua capacidade de reagir ao numinoso e às forças do inconsciente. A vida simbólica é expressa por meio de rituais religiosos que permitem o fluxo energético gerado pelas pressões comuns do cotidiano. Portanto, a vida simbólica é expressa por meio de símbolos das religiões, ou seja, pelas suas formas de espiritualidade presentes nos ritos coletivos ou privados. Dessa forma, quanto mais rica em símbolos maior é a capacidade de uma religião permitir o equilíbrio das relações entre o ego e o self, bem como, entre a pessoa e a vida comum. Por outro lado, quanto maior a racionalização da religião e a concepção materialista de vida, menos intensa é a vida simbólica e menor a capacidade de reagir às pulsões do inconsciente e das pressões da vida. Nesse sentido, como último recurso, o homem moderno apega-se às formas de espiritualidade superficiais como a literatura de autoajuda, aos hobbies etc. SPIRITUALITY AND SYMBOLIC LIFE This work aims to analyze the concept of ‘symbolic life’ of Carl Gustav Jung and associate it with the notion of spirituality. For Jung, modern man experiences a spiritual crisis due to the loss of his ability to react to the numinous and the forces of the unconscious. The symbolic life expressed through religious rituals that allow the energetic flow generated by the pressures of life on the conscience and the unconscious, in other words, expressed through symbols of religions, this is, by their forms of spirituality present in collective or private rites. In this way, as richer in symbols, the greater will be the capacity of religion to balance the relationship between ego and self, as well as between the person and the ordinary life. On the other hand, the greater the rationalization of religion and the materialistic conception of life, the less intense is the symbolic life and the less the ability to react to the drives of the unconscious and the pressures of life. In this sense, as a last resort, modern man clings to superficial forms of spirituality such as self-help literature, hobbies, and so on.

“Yo Soy La DesintegracióN”: Helplessness and Sublimation Through Frida Kahlo's History

Considering the relevance of studying the pathologies of emptiness for contemporaneous clinic, this work approaches the correlation between helplessness and sublimation concepts. Helplessness is considered a new theory, developed by David Maldavsky that uses the term desvalimiento to define a clinical condition described by the feeling of emptiness. To understand this concept, it is necessary to return to a primitive period, when the baby is beginning to qualify his affections. Thus, using historical construction, we start at Freud's works (focusing in the primitive period and the affections qualification), explore the “good-enough mother” importance, from Winnicott, and reaching the helplessness from the present-days Maldavsky's studies. The Frida Kahlo's history illustrates this work as much because of her toxic current as because of her talent to sublimate. The maternal failure, the toxic relationships, the trauma's imposition, the abuse of alcohol and drugs and the viscosity denounce her helplessness. Nevertheless, the art expresses her fight for life. The Frida Kahlo's works represent her suffering, but they also are her attempts to understand her feelings and to reframe her traumatic events. Therefore, we introduce the sublimation as an alternative to the helplessness. Although helplessness is the lack of the symbolic life, we present the art as an opportunity to confront experiences, which can allow the representation of the traumas and the qualification of affections. Through the sublimation, Frida Kahlo recreated her inner world and returned to life.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.