It seems that the emotional dimension of human nature is made out to be a problem in today's world. Why should that be? Does an ape hate its fur? Does a machine hate its cogs that make it whir? But a human being hates his emotional essence...
Emotions are only obstructive when they cause us to rebel against a system or situation that may be false and damaging to begin with. Emotions with nowhere to go, trapped within the individual's body, with no sense of broader meaning or social context, become malignant. Rancid emotions are narcissistic, but not all emotions predispose one to sickliness.
Hierarchical social orders place limits on human expression. One dare not feel or act entirely as one is. Therefore psychoanalysis teaches one to understand those emotions which have already become malignant because they lack a positive outlet. Shamanism takes a completely different root to that of curtailing malignancy (which would only allow for the perpetuation of any stifling social order).
Shamanism extends subjectivity, rather than controls it.
"See that tree out there? See that animal lurking in the forest? Feel that loamy ground, underfoot?"
Shamanism asserts: "That is you!"
Bataille was advocating just such a shamanistic construct when he spoke of "the unity of the subject and the object". We are completely in the moment, and our emotions extend to penetrate everything.
"I am the world; and the world is in me!"
Emotions are only obstructive when they cause us to rebel against a system or situation that may be false and damaging to begin with. Emotions with nowhere to go, trapped within the individual's body, with no sense of broader meaning or social context, become malignant. Rancid emotions are narcissistic, but not all emotions predispose one to sickliness.
Hierarchical social orders place limits on human expression. One dare not feel or act entirely as one is. Therefore psychoanalysis teaches one to understand those emotions which have already become malignant because they lack a positive outlet. Shamanism takes a completely different root to that of curtailing malignancy (which would only allow for the perpetuation of any stifling social order).
Shamanism extends subjectivity, rather than controls it.
"See that tree out there? See that animal lurking in the forest? Feel that loamy ground, underfoot?"
Shamanism asserts: "That is you!"
Bataille was advocating just such a shamanistic construct when he spoke of "the unity of the subject and the object". We are completely in the moment, and our emotions extend to penetrate everything.
"I am the world; and the world is in me!"
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