Edmund Bergler Pt. 2

Hello everyone!! How are y'all doing today? This is Vincent LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, book blogger extraordinaire! :) Today, I want to follow up on Edmund Bergler. Remember him? Of course you do! He's the man who came up with the term 'Writer's Block.' We got into a lot of technical information and terms surrounding 'neurosis,' 'masochism', and 'megalomania.' Just to recap before I post more notes about Psychic Mashochism...what does that term mean? This is what Mr. Bergler said in his own words: "it is the unconscious wish to defeat one's conscious aims, and to enjoy that self-constructed defeat." Interesting, is it not? Let us continue and examine the theory of Psychic Masochism. :)


(The Superego) Made up of two things:
-1. The ego ideal, as described by Freud, grows out of his infantile megalomania, which is by no means a negligible characteristic in any child.
2. Daimonion: a cruel inner jailer, tormentor, and torturer. (6)

-Daimonion confronts the ego with its self-created ego ideal, asking if all the aims promised during childhood have been achieved. If the answer is in the negative, the result is guilt.” (6) **Main point linked with Writer’s Block.
Psychic Masochism in Adults:
“1. Unconsciously, the psychic masochist provokes disappointment or refusal, through his behavior or his misuse of an external situation. When disappointment or refusal materializes, the outer world is unconsciously identified with the image of the ‘refusing’ mother of the earliest stage of development, the pre-Oedipal, ‘gimme’ phase.
2. Pseudoaggresion, denoting unconsciously mobilized defensive aggression, aimed not at the outer enemy but as alibi presented to the unconscious conscience (the superego). On the surface, the pseudo aggression seems to be the product of righteous indignation, and a move made in self-defense against the external enemy; the psychic masochist remains unaware of the part he has played in bringing about his disappointment.
3. Still unaware of the part he has unconsciously played, the psychic masochist consciously pities himself for his defeat and humiliation; at the same time he unconsciously enjoys masochistic pleasure.” (8)