THE LOST GROUND
If lost Dasein must find itself, then it must have had an original state of unity that was destroyed. Everydayness is seen as negative since it eclipses Dasein's self. Dasein has a true self that is overcome by “das Man” – Havi Carel
The baneful motive behind metaphysical thinking and establishment of the All-Father at the Omega Point or Pole, stems, as said, from our need for psychic stability and grounding. It also stems, says Otto Rank, from our fear of the “irrational” that exists within us as the so-called “unconscious.” For Rank, the unconscious is simply understood as uninhibited libido and “will.” His account of will and the Will-to-Will recalls the ideas of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer on the same subject. But as far as Rank was concerned, the socialized brain strives ever to dissociate itself from this flow of unstructured libido. The first move in this act of dissociation is the ego’s demonization of the unconscious as a threatening and ultimately bestial region. After that comes more stringent superego control, orienting the ego to society’s supposedly “rational” norms. This, says Rank, accounts for the advent of psychoanalysis, the discipline in service of the superego, intent on designating as “neurotic” and pathological anything not under conscious wilful control.
Freud referred to the unconscious as the “id,” which simply means “it.” It’s not a bad definition, since the term “unconscious” isn’t really accurate. If it’s not consciousness, then we simply don’t know what it is. It’s really not the unconscious, so to speak, for the simple reason it might be something else. The word tells us little.
