The Angst After the Anthropocene

1.Formation of Obsession

Case Study: Rat Man

In October of 1907, a lawyer and former military officer by the name of Ernst Lanzer walked into the office of Sigmund Freud seeking insight into the anxieties and fears that had been plaguing his life. In Freud’s office, they delved into the earliest memories of his sexual experiences. Although his first experience of intercourse was not until the age of twenty-six, Lanzer had an interest in sex at an early age. At the age of four, Lanzer was infatuated with a young governess. One night, he and the governess were lying on the sofa together. His curiosity for the female body led to him begging for an intimate moment with her. She swore to keep it in secrecy, and thus Lanzer responded by sliding his hand inside the governess’s dress. He spoke on his initial feelings to Freud, “[It] struck me as very queer. After this I have felt a burning, tormenting curiosity to see the female body” (Freud, 160). The sexual encounters carried on between the two for years onward. At one point, the family hired another governess, Lina, who Lanzer grew a curiosity for and would stalk in private moments. Lanzer, having overheard Lina speak of his sexual incompetence to other members of the house, became distressed. Caught in his distress, Lisa comforted him and continued to allow him to engage in sexual activity with her. She later married and left the home. During the time, Lanzer was being instructed by a private tutor who, for a long time, was not exclusive. Once this became so, he recalled feeling used; “treated like the worst kind of tool” (Bukowski). He discovered that his tutor sexually sought after one of his sisters. He began to worry that his own desires for the younger woman he had been intimate with would create the nuance of suspicion within other members of the house. He feared that someone knew of his desires, “[Lanzer] had articulated my thoughts without hearing them myself” (Freud, 162). This anxiety reared its head later in Lanzer’s life during his service in the military. Lanzer grew an attachment to one of his captains. This captain was very special in that he took pleasure in administering cruel punishment. The captain told Lanzer of a practice, “’the criminal was tied up… a pot was turned upside down on his buttocks… some rats were put into it… and they…’ -he had again got up and was showing every sign of horror and resistance- ‘…bored their way in’” (Freud, 166). Freud interpreted Lanzer’s reaction as quite a mixed feeling. Freud poetically noted in his entry, “…horror at pleasure of his own of which he himself was unaware…” (Freud, 167). His sexual distress mixed with the utility of fear led Lanzer into a state of obsession, “At that moment the idea flashed through my mind that this was happening to a person who was very dear to me” (Freud, 167). The fear and anxiety which landed Lanzer in Freud’s office.

Obsession in Symptoms

The case of Rat Man was published under the title of Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis. For explicit reasons, this case addresses the topic of obsession. However, when Freud refers to obsession, he discusses the neurosis symptomatically. First, Obsessional neurosis, like hysteria, is ambivalent – “This neurosis falls, in general, into two groups… They are either prohibitions, precautions, and expiations… or they are, on the contrary, substitutive satisfactions which often appear in symbolic disguise” (Freud, 37). Second, the subject constructs justifications for the ambivalence – “the powerful reaction formation in the ego, the struggle against sexuality will henceforward be carried on under the banner of ethical principles” (Freud, 42). Thirdly, the subject partakes in sublimation – “In obsessional neurosis, the conflict is aggravated in two directions: the defensive forces become more intolerant and the forces that are to be fended off become more intolerable. Both effects are due to a single factor, namely, regression of the libido” (Freud, 42). This path is considered the most effective way in developing a compulsive and repetitive habit; “Symptom-formation scores a triumph if it succeeds in combing the prohibition with satisfaction” (Freud, 37). Once the symptom formation succeeds, the ego goes into regression, or a revision of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adaptive way. This progression will be examined in the relationship of humans to the hierarchy of power within nature later in the essay, but we need something beyond symptoms to consider this.

Freud on Obsession

“Obsessional neurosis originates, no doubt… in the necessity of ending off the libidinal demands of the Oedipus complex” (Freud, 38). Lanzer had been caught under the domination of the Id via sexual instinct. However, this is unknown to Lanzer since, “the ego had not yet placed itself in complete opposition to [the obsession] and did not yet regard it as something foreign to [the ego]” (Freud, 163). Therefore, the young Lanzer carried out his desires with no contest. Once the obsession found itself in that foreign position, it was associated with fear, “every time he had a wish of this kind, he could not help fearing that something dreadful would happen” (Freud, 163). Lanzer reported in his sessions, “The idea flashed through my mind that [the rat punishment] was happening to a person who was very dear to me’…. I learnt that the person to whom this ‘idea’ of his related was the lady whom he admired” (Freud, 167). Once these associations are made and practiced, Lanzer’s response would ultimately become “protective measures” in order to maintain control over his infantile desires; “In enforcing regression, the ego scores its finest success in its defensive struggle against the demands of the libido” (Freud, 39). This conclusion was enough for Freud to develop his theory of psychosexuality, but Freud’s contemporaries found this conclusion to be incomplete.

Lacan on Obsession

One of the most common critiques by analytic contemporaries on Freud’s assessment of obsession is his bias towards sexual and childhood as the basis of explanation for mental disorder. In more recent years, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan sought to examine the psyche as a mechanism in a higher order of operating realities. Jacques Lacan’s “Three Orders” consists of: (1) “The Real”, the realm of objectivity as it exists, (2) “The Symbolic”, the realm of differences, which is accounted for through language and structure, and (3) “The Imaginary”, which is the realm of the ego and imagination. Although these worlds are distinct from one another, they greatly influence the other domain. In agreement with Freud, obsessional neurosis is based in fantasy, and therefore, considered an ego drive. The examination of obsessional neurosis thus detracts from traditional Freud theory and directs us to The Imaginary. Since the neurosis does not begin in any foreign object, the neurosis begins within Lanzer. It is only appropriate to examine the interplay Lacan sought for by digging deeper into how the neurosis influences “The Symbolic” and “The Real”. In Lacan’s assessment of obsessional neurosis, virtues of obsession consist in the need for symmetry, order, and control. As Freud noted, obsession takes shape once the ego, in Lacan’s case any subject of imagination, can find itself in opposition to the obsessed instincts. This is particularly true for Lanzer since, as imagined, his neurosis constructs a fear regarding how things could be or proceed to be. Justification, according to Lacan, as “ethical principle”, must then be resistance, control, and isolation, all which align with Freud’s model of symptom formation regarding obsessional neurosis. This is the rational “protective measure” taken. All of which, I argue, can be said of Industry, a product of the human imagination as a concession to the obsession of our traumatic shift in hierarchical position regarding all other things.

2. The Symptom of Obsession in Industry

An excerpt from Yuval Noah Harari’s novel Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind sets the scene perfectly for the symptom formation within humankind: “Genus Homo’s position in the food chain was, until quite recently, solidly in the middle. It was only 400,000 years ago that several species of man began to hunt large game on a regular basis, and only in the last 100,000 years— with the rise of Homo sapiens— that man jumped to the top of the food chain. That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences. Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc. As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more bad-tempered. In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. Most of the predators of the planet are majestic creatures. Millions of years of domination have filled them with self-confidence… Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fear and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump” (Harari, 11-12).

The account shows no doubt the psyche’s direct influence over the formation of action. A traumatic (in the sense of an administrative shock to a mechanism that requires immediate response) shift in the order of nature not only disrupts the order of things, but the order residing within the psyche within each thing as well. It is here that the ego of humans finds itself in total opposition to the presumed “natural, evolutionary order of things”. This traumatic shift is not only represented in the historical account of humankind but is also in the biblical account of Adam and Eve. Where Adam and Eve are birthed into, and in tandem with, the world. That at this moment, the “natural, evolutionary order of things” was in union, “The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies, or jellyfish” (Harari, 6). It was at the moment that both Adam and Eve placed themselves in complete opposition to God, the legislator of order, that the neurosis began along with God’s perpetuating obligation to save humanity and the human’s perpetuating obligation to be saved through salvation. This is, indeed, the first account of hysteria in women, and obsession in men. This gender association may be true in the Lanzer case, but more importantly, is significant in the broader scope of culture construction. These categorizations are imposed onto the operation of our macrosystem. In our conscious archetyping of womanhood towards mother nature, the association of manhood is deduced to its relation to industry.

3. The Neurotic Atmosphere of Industry:

Apathy and Depersonalization

“It is perhaps in obsessional cases more than in moral or hysterical ones that we can most clearly recognize that the motive force of defense is the castration complex… We are at present dealing with the beginning of the latency period… the creation and consolidation of the superego and the erection of ethical and aesthetic barriers in the ego… The superego becomes exceptionally severe and unkind, and the ego, in obedience to the superego” (Freud, 40).

The castration complex, in Freud’s scope, deals with the fear of emasculation in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The “Post-Oedipus” view would detach the fear from a direct connection to genitalia and turn the fear against other signifiers. In Lacan’s analysis, the complex connects clearly with the “masculine” position of control, strength, and power. A position humankind formed consequent to the dramatic shift to the top of the food chain. The latency period described comes to us in the form of a regress towards moral and ethical apathy; the subject of that apathy consists of animals as humankind borders themselves off from the rest of the food chain hierarchy. Animal agriculture, in all its power and control, becomes unkind and severe towards animals.

The theme of fear and anxiety is well dissectible through animal agriculture. Animal agriculture went under dramatic revision since the industrial era and over the past one hundred years. Harmonious attitudes regarding farming can be observed as animal ethics and moral principles become more engaged with the practice of farmers. The relationship of the farmer to the farm animals was as intimate as could be. However, as agriculture grew in mass via industry, the intimacy faded, the distance grew, and the developing, neurotic atmosphere fueled the practice of dehumanization. From the hunting of animals to the imposed essentialism of the industrial animal, it is in the unconscious obsession from the animal agriculture industry that the animals who are subjected to the traumatic shift of the industrial complex are born into fear and concession. Animal agriculture asserts its dominion rather than operates in harmony with animals. “We cannot be surprised if [the super-ego] becomes harsher, unkinder, and more tormenting than where development has been normal” (Freud, 41).

In regard to symptom-formation, ambivalence asserts the abolishment of guilt and precaution in the obliteration of morality within animal treatment. Substitutive satisfactions come with the benefit to the human, which often appear in symbolic disguise, whether it is in promotion of health or justification in reference to the “natural order of things”, as it falls short in the face of alarming environmental damage. Sublimation sparks conflict from the ethical principle of the matter becoming more intolerant of the industrial treatment of animals and the industries that fended off through law and economic strategies. This concludes in the regression of considering and implementing more efficient and ethical practices posed by animal ethics. This path is considered the most effective way in developing a compulsive and repetitive habit.

4. Closing Statement

Unfortunately, after ten months of seeing Sigmund, Lanzer stopped his treatment, and an application of treatment was never provided to him. What is left is a log of his sessions as scribed. Therefore, investigation into a plan of attack would require investigation into cases and topics outside the scope of obsession as a model of addressing the psychoanalytic landscape of animal agriculture. However, what can be said is this: In addressing the cycle of protective measures that fan the flames of obsessional neurosis. A dismantling of the cycle is the common-sense approach. Where and how was never addressed within the rat man case, and it would be a feature of this practice in analysis that would deserve well more than what is provided here. Nevertheless, the plan of action must be one that promotes catharsis in three realms: (1) It must release humankind from the fear and anxiety that is rooted in the initial transition from the middle to the top of the food chain. (2) It must address the ethical landscape as it formed through the obsession. And (3) It ought to consider, to a great degree, the depersonalizing damage of the animals from the domain of industry. In essence, we ought to consider Freud’s initial response as a position outside the unconscious nature of industrial animal agriculture looking inward. We are indeed horrified at the pleasure of our own, of which we ourselves are unaware.

Cited Works

Araujo, Ronaldo Chicre, et al. “Obsessive Neurosis in the Sigmund Freud Approach. Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, vol. 12, Issue 1, 2018.

Danis J., Möde, E. “Hysteria and obsessional neurosis: A disturbed system of relationship of principles”, International Journal of Psychophysiology, vol. 7, Issues 2–4, 1989, oo 175-176.

Freud, Sigmund. “Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 10, 1909, pp. 151-318.

Freud, Sigmund, et al. “Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety.” Norton, 1989.

Hamidi, Farideh, and Motlagh, Sara Shirazi. “Comparison of Irrational Beliefs and Defense Mechanisms in Patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Normal Individuals.” Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 5, 2010, pp. 1620–1624.

Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper Perennial, 2018.

Thapaliya, Suresh. “The Case of Rat Man: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” Journal of Mental Health and Human Behaviour, vol. 22, no. 2, 2017, pp. 132–135.