There are a few Freudian terms thrown around in NGE, and many of the soundtracks' titles
refer to psychological dynamics in relationships. Here are their definitions, taken from my psy
textbook. If my textbook didn't include them, they will be starred like this*.
- Borderline Case*
- This is a really old school term which is probably why my textbook doesn't use it.
'Borderline case' was used to describe individuals who did not fit the classical
definition of psychotic (cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality), but who
could not function normally within society.
- Separation Anxiety
- Attachment to the mother is seen in two ways: Being with her brings contentment, and
separation from her evokes distress... from about six to eight months of age, infants learn who 'mother' is,
and they now cry and fuss when she departs. The age at which children begin to protest this
separation - that is, the age at which children start to show separation anxiety, -
is pretty [universal].
- Pleasure Principle
- The id... abides entirely by the pleasure principle - satisfaction now
and not later, regardless of the circumstances and whatever the cost.
- Oral Stage
- An early stage in Freud's model of psychosexual development. During this stage, the infant
derives pleasure from the locus of the mouth (breastfeeding). This stage is characterized by
an identification with the mother to plenitude and pleasure.
- Thanatos*
- A derivative of the pleasure principle, coupled with eros. Whereas eros is the life principle,
governing basic biological instincts such as eating, and sex, thanatos corresponds to the id's
death prinicple, governing destructive and aggressive instincts.
- Ambivalence*
- Related to the Oedipus complex, ambivalence refers to state of the male child's feelings towards his father/phallus. He may hate the father for monopolizing his mother, yet he loves his father for being the symbol of power and all those phallocentric wonders that come along with having a penis. The emotions of love and hate are not negotiated, and instead the child lapses into ambivalence (sound like anyone to you? ~_^)
The following terms are titles of NGE tracks that relate to
Freudian psychology, but are not official Freudian terms:
- Childhood Memories, Shut Away
- May refer to either repression (unconscious act) or supression (conscious act).
- She said, "Don't make others suffer for your personal hatred."
- May refer to projection, in which personal charactaristics or motives are attributed to
someone or something else.
- Infantile dependence, adult dependancy
- A very common pop psyche theory which states any unresolved conflict caused during childhood
will manifest accordingly in adulthood.
- Those women longed for the touch...
- Elabourating on the previous term - women rejected by their fathers seek
out acceptance from other men, 'inviting their kisses' (meaning of course,
Misato, Ritsuko and Asuka). May also refer to the problematic situation the
female ego finds itself in; Freud posits that the female itself is the site
of pleasure, however, in lacking a penis, the female must reject the initial
oral dependency on mother and properly transfer desire to the father.
- The Sorrow off Losing the Object of One's Dependence
- The anxiety one faces when one can no longer access the object of one's projections.
- Mother is the First Other/Splitting of the Breast
- When the identification with the mother figure ceases.
return