Vida e morte em Fechner e Freud

As concepções de vida e morte de Freud e de Fechner se entrelaçam no momento em que o primeiro, em Além do princípio do prazer (1920), aclimata ao seu arcabouço teórico o princípio fechneriano da tendência à estabilidade, tomado a partir de então como um princípio mais geral ao qual se subordina o princípio da constância (ou princípio do Nirvana). O princípio de Fechner, contudo, é destacado por Freud de uma obra publicada em 1873, onde seu autor o formula como um princípio físico que se insere em uma concepção geral sobre a vida — sobre a sua origem e o seu desenvolvimento, mas também o seu ocaso —, concepção que difere sobremaneira da visão científica usual, à qual Freud se filia. No entanto, a visão sobre a vida e a morte dos dois autores conflui a partir do ponto em comum representado pelo princípio da tendência à estabilidade, que, em Fechner, leva os organismos progressivamente ao estado inorgânico e, em Freud, parece poder ser entendido como o fundamento da pulsão de morte, que naturalmente se esforça por alcançar este mesmo fim.Palavras-Chave: Freud. Fechner. Vida. Morte. Life and death in Fechner and FreudABSTRACTFreud's and Fechner's conceptions of life and death are intertwined when the former, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), acclimatizes to his theoretical framework the Fechnerian principle of the tendency to stability, taken from then on as a more general principle to which the constancy principle (or Nirvana principle) is subordinated. Fechner's principle, however, is highlighted by Freud from a work published in 1873, where its author formulates it as a physical principle that fits into a general conception of life — about its origin and its development, but also the its sunset — a conception that differs greatly from the usual scientific view, to which Freud adheres. However, the vision of life and death of the two authors converges from the common point represented by the principle of the tendency to stability, which, in Fechner, leads organisms progressively to an inorganic state and, in Freud, seems to be understood as the foundation of the death drive, which naturally strives to achieve this very end.Keywords: Freud. Fechner. Life. Death.

Teorema’s Death Drive

This chapter offers a reading of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968), not only as a major queer film, but as an early work of queer theory. Made in 1968, Teorema appears at a moment of political upheaval, and yet confoundingly discards a narrative of class struggle in order to focus on a series of sexual encounters between a handsome, unnamed stranger (played by Terence Stamp) and every member of a wealthy Milanese family. Does Pasolini’s first film to explicitly depict homosexuality entail a failure of his Marxist politics? Exploring the film’s political aesthetics, the chapter argues that what is at stake in Teorema is an aesthetic inscription of what Guy Hocquenghem, a few years later, would call “homosexual desire.” Far from describing a socially intelligible sexual orientation, this term names a movement towards dissolution and revolution, both material and metaphysical.

Objectification and Instrumentalization: The Activation of Thanatos in Connection with “Body-Power”; or the Human Body as a Critical Object of Power in the Resent Social Reality

This paper is about the ways in which the human body has been objectified under and through the use of power. The article explains the different aspects and ways of objectification of the body and the hidden nature of human behaviour that results from activation of the inner human instincts - the death drive, called Thanatos (Note 1) and the life drive called Eros as a response to Thanatos. By using the theories of Freud, Nussbaum, Erikson, Fanon and Foucault, the relationship between the human body and external power is examined. Using some recent events (such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the world lockdown and the Black Lives Matter movement) human behaviour is seen to result from activation of the inner drives (Eros (Note 2) and Thanatos), but also to be linked to the psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of human development.