CVSP 204 Second Exam Aya Atto – 201904754

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a- Id, Ego, Supergo
Id, Ego, and Superego are Freudian concepts tackled in his work ‘Civilization and Its
Discontents’. From a Freudian perspective, the mind is divided in three big areas: the conscious
which is made up of our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, the preconscious where our
knowledge and memories are stored, and the unconscious, entirely isolated from the Cs-Pcs
system, where most of our repressed desires and wishes lie. For Freud, conscious and
preconscious constitute what we can define as “you”, your “self”, or your Ego. The Ego is what
makes up you. On top of the Ego, or rather besides the Ego is an instance called the Superego.
The Superego could be defined as the mind repressor; originating from internalized teachings on
morals and norms during infancy and product of society’s expectations, the Superego is similar
to ‘the little voice in your head’ whose role is to keep immoral thinking and desires at bay – that
is it, to keep the Id repressed. The Id, the unconscious part of the mind, is the place of repressed
primal instincts, fears, unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, immoral urges, selfish
needs, irrational wishes, and shameful experiences. In the Id, lies most of the explanation to
human behavior. These concepts are significant to Freud’s text because thanks to them, we
realize that as humans, we are inherently split subjects. Continuously torn between the conscious
– where reason and logic reign – and the unconscious, dominated by the eros and Thanatos
instincts, our subjectivity is influenced by both instances, and from a broader perspective by the
Id and the Superego. From this realization, the Ego can be compared to a undecisive entity
constantly drawn towards either the Id and the Superego. A mind perpetually at war with itself.
b- Nobility for Nietzsche
What is nobility? For Nietzsche, the concept of nobility is not too far from the common
monarchial use of the noun. From his conception, ‘nobility’ or rather, being noble means
adopting the master morality. For him, we are enslaved by society – one who is enslaved is one
that lets his emotions dominate him and who adopts the herd thinking, in the making allowing
society to dictate to him how to think. In order to transcend this ‘slave morality’, we have to
become noble. For Nietzsche, the very structure, behavior, and ranking system of society exist so
that noble individuals with master morality can emerge from it. Nobility is being led by our own
free will, relying to our free spirit. A true noble person does not follow, he is the determinator of
values, or as he defines it: a superman. For those who seek to reach this ‘state of nobility’,
besides their free will and self-made set of values, Friedrich Nietzsche also urges them to turn
their primal instincts of cruelty inwards in a painful struggle of self-examination in order to
strengthen themselves and approximate the ‘superman’ more and more every day. This concept
is significant to ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ as it helps us understand Nietzsche’s whole theory of
transcending plainness and fighting dogmatism. If suffering comes from outside, it weakens you,
if it comes from inside, it strengthens you. This is why a true noble man has to strip himself
away of society dogmatism and being hard on himself. To sum up Nietzsche’s thinking, we have
to accept pain as it serves to our elevation.

c- Apollonian and Dionysian tendencies in Achenbach

The Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy is a philosophical concept where the figure of Apollo,
Greek god of rational thinking and order, is contrasted to his brother Dionysus’s, divine
representation of drunkenness, immorality, and chaos. This concept, used in numerous works of
literacy, fully embodies the character of Achenbach, main protagonist of Thomas Mann’s ‘Death
in Venice’. Achenbach is portrayed as a man who had always kept his emotions in check,
recognized scholar, he was known for his rationality and seriousness, not even allowing his
passions or emotions to appear in his works. Having continuously cultivated a sense of restraint
since his austere childhood, he was the ultimate Appolo. Then, he goes on vacation in Venice
and his world – with his personality – is turned upside down. He caught sight of Tadzio, a
beautiful young Polish boy. From that moment on the transition enables itself and Achenbach
slowly shift from a logic and reasonable man to a Dionysian figure, becoming a mere puppet to
his desires, passions and lust. In his text, Mann puts an emphasis on this shift as the whole being
of the character is portrayed changed – he even dyed his hair, drifting away from the seriousness
of Apollo and fitting more the Dionysus figure depicted as festive. Achenbach was fascinated by
the boy, even stopping to work so that he would not miss the boy and his friends. He became
carefree, emotion-driven, irrational, and drunk with love and lust; all characteristics of Greek god
Dionysus. This dialectic is significant to ‘Death in Venice’ because it is what the novella is truly
about; this specific shift, this decadence. Mann’s work introduces us to a character who,
progressively, goes from one extreme to another, passing from this rational Apollonian figure to
a Dionysian one, seemingly driven by what Freud called has called, Eros and Thanatos instincts.

II/
b-

Thomas Mann’s novella ‘Death in Venice’ depicts the story of Gustav von Aschenbach,
an aging German writer who became famous thanks to his art. Sickly child coming from an
austere childhood, his definition of ‘good work’ was of one that would not leave room for
unnecessary passion or physical weaknesses. Because of the drastic shift that happened to his
personality when, going on vacation in Venice, he met a young boy who against all odds he fell
in love with, Achenbach character is one that could be analyzed both through the lens of Freud’s
theory of conscious/unconscious and Nietzsche’s slave and master morality concept.
 If Freud were to discuss Achenbach character, it would most certainly start by
pinpointing his relatively austere infancy. Achenbach grew up a sick child who had to be
homeschooled. His whole life he had little to no contacts with children his age, which mean it
did not get to experience many of what makes up childhood or adolescence. Resulting from this
fact, Achenbach had many emotions he repressed, concealing them under a mask of seriousness
and solemn dedication to his work. Achenbach’s superego had been built under all these years of
intensive work, convincing himself that physical weakness, passion, let alone love and lust had
no place in true art. For Freud, such a state of repressed emotions and imbalance could not
remain stable for long as the unconscious or Id, primary process and place of primal instincts and
repressed desires, is what makes up most of our psyche. Hence, no matter how strong the
superego, such strong repression is always fated to burst; as the Id’s content is like water, it
always finds a way out. The next part of Mann’s novella certainly proves Freud right: At the
sight of Tadzio, the young Poland boy, Achenbach’s Eros (life, and sexual) and Thanatos (death)
instincts are triggered from the depths of his unconscious. Now all his so intensively repressed
emotions go loose. The main protagonist goes from one extreme to another. Formerly dictated by
his strong superego, he is now a simple puppet into the hands of its voracious Id. From a serious
dedicated scholar, he went to everything he had despised his whole life. Freud would comment
on such outcome that it was one to be expected, like as previously stated, the Id’s content is like
water, he always finds a way.
Secondly, giving the opportunity to Nietzsche to give his opinion on this interesting
novella, one expected response would most probably be that of a shift from a master morality to
a slave morality. Achenbach was in some sorts exhibiting the ‘master morality’ advocated by
Nietzsche. He had really strong beliefs which one could argue somewhat went to the opposite of
what society was thinking. For him, emotions had no place in Art, only reason; while his peers at
the time might have been more in favor of an emotional style of writing: romance, drama,
tragedy, where an author would pour his soul and passion into his work. Whether these strong
convictions were products of his upbringing or not, the matter of fact is that he was grounded in
his beliefs, parting him from the herd thinking continuously critized by Nietzsche. Additionally,
whether he admitted it or not, Achenbach was inflicting violence upon himself in order to
achieve his vision of what true art should be. He made an important point of never letting his
emotion or passion show trough his work – which is, every one could agree, a really tenuous and
painful work of repression. Because of this, Achenbach could have been defined as a ‘superman’
from Nietzsche’s definition. One that while keeping his own free will, inflicted cruelty upon
himself in order to transcend his knowledge and ascend to the state of nobility. Then, he laid
eyes on this juvenile boy and his decadence began. He became prey to his own emotions. While
one could argue that despite his shift of personality, while loving the boy he was acting on his
own free will, hence keeping the master morality. Nietzsche would have certainly replied that in
addition of the free will to have the master morality one should also be able to dominate over his
emotions, his natural primal instincts and violence – which was not the case in Mann’s work.
Achenbach hence went from a master to a slave, stripped away from his reason and in the
making, dignity.
 To conclude this interesting exercise, I would proceed by giving my own personal
opinion on the subject. From this novella, the solution appears not to repress your own emotions
but to acknowledge them and learn how to deal with them. Repressed emotions are like a bomb,
that is continuously ticking, waiting for a moment of weakness – be it a beautiful Poland boy or
something else – to strike. Achenbach’s case is a tragedy, at the end he lost everything even his
life. From the very beginning, this story appeared like both a suicide attempt and a quest for life
as Freud put it while mentioning eros and Thanatos instincts. Achenbach knew he was of bad
health, still he chose to remain in Venice despite the cholera outburst in order to stay with the
boy because of the love he had for him. In this interesting novella, love and death seem to be
intertwined in an inextricable link, ultimately leading the main protagonist in death, but for well-
known reasons this death was not a bad thing as a matter of fact; because in its unstoppable
making it made this sickly aging rigid scholar know love which could have been, one of the most
privileged blessing for him.