Changes
The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles).
Cruelty is a multi-faceted [[concept]] in [[Freud]]'s [[work]]. It can relate to actions and motivations but also to [[agencies]], events, or destiny. When [[Dora]] (1905e [1901]) abruptly terminated her [[analysis]], Freud mentioned the young [[girl]]'s "cruel impulses and revengeful motives" (p. 120), which, through Freud in the [[transference]], were directed at Herr K. and through him at her [[father]]. This [[text]], written in 1901, contains an implicit question as to whether these impulses originate from the [[drives]] or the ego, but also as to the type of person associated with these impulses: in fleeing [[The Transference|the transference]], did Dora intend to be cruel towards Freud?
An "[[instinct]] of cruelty" appears in the [[Three]] Essays on the [[Theory]] of [[Sexuality]] (1905d). In this work, Freud relates it to [[male]] sexuality: the man has a tendency to subjugate in [[order]] to overcome "the [[resistance]] of the [[sexual]] object" (p. 158) and [[satisfy]] his sexual urges. Freud states: "There is an intimate connection between cruelty and the [[sexual instinct]]" (p. 159). Along with [[scopophilia]] and [[exhibitionism]], cruelty is classified as a [[partial]] or component [[drive]]. Whether [[active]] or [[passive]], it also stems from the drive for mastery. Whereas this drive is exerted through the "[[apparatus]] for obtaining mastery" (p. 159), connected with the musculature, it is the skin, as the "[[erotogenic]] zone par excellence" (p. 169) that constitutes "one of the erotogenic roots of the passive instinct of cruelty" (p. 193). Freud also refers to [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s [[memories]] of [[being]] beaten, which he goes on to discuss further in "A [[Child]] is Being Beaten" (1919e).
In the same year (1915b), Freud specifically related cruelty to egotism. Intrinsically neither [[good]] nor bad, the drives acquire these qualities with [[regard]] to the necessary [[process]] of [[civilization]]. But the child is able to [[renounce]] drive [[gratification]] because of his [[need]] to be loved by his [[libidinal]] object. However, the object still remains an unloved and sometimes hated stranger as a direct result of its [[otherness]]. Egoistic and cruel impulses resurface and are directed at the object, particularly if the object is generally designated as an [[enemy]]. Wounded by these attacks, the object becomes even more frightening.
After the introduction of the [[death]] drive in 1920, the drive for cruelty gave way to the "destructive drive," [[understood]] as an [[external]] deflection of the [[death drive]] (1923b) and described as [[aggressive]] when directed at [[objects]]. If it is taken up by the ego, the ego itself becomes cruel or sadistic. The ego then risks not only losing the object's [[love]] but also being subjected to the reprimands of the [[SuperEgo|superego]]. This [[agency]], which equates with [[moral]] [[conscience]], can demonstrate an extreme cruelty, according to the need for [[aggression]] aroused by [[present]] and [[past]] frustrations. Rebellious by [[nature]] towards what is nevertheless the necessary process of civilization, the [[human]] being is always able to display a "cruel [[aggressiveness]]" (1930a, p. 111) if circumstances lend themselves to this.
Melanie [[Klein]] substantially developed this concept of cruelty on the part of the superego. In the context of the controversy that pitted her against [[Anna Freud]], she drew attention to the extreme severity of the [[infantile]] (or early) superego, even where the [[parents]] are conciliatory (1927). The harshness of the agency is proportional to the aggression felt by the child as a result of the frustrations experienced during [[weaning]] and toilet [[training]]. Thus a cruel superego, "something which bites, devours and cuts" (1928, p. 187) is the outcome of the [[oral]]-sadistic and [[anal]]-sadistic drives. Taking up Freud's hypothesis concerning the necessary external [[projection]] of the [[Death Drive|death drive]], to which the effects of pre-[[oedipal]] frustrations are added, [[Melanie Klein]] described an extremely cruel child who "attacks its [[mother]]'s [[breast]]" (1933, p. 253), "thinks of sucking out and eating up the [[inside]] of its mother's [[body]]" (p. 254) and attacks its object with excrements that are "regarded as burning and corroding substances" (p. 253). This intense hostility both from the object and toward it is the product of the deflection of the death drive and past frustrations but also of fears of reprisal for the hostility towards the hated object, ultimately of the influence of the early superego. Thus, "the small child becomes dominated by the [[fear]] of suffering unimaginable cruel attacks, both from its [[real]] objects and from its [[super-ego]]" (p. 251). Although the oedipal [[phase]] is influenced by the earlier [[stages]], these destructive rages are tempered with pity and some reparative impulses emerge.
Donald [[Winnicott]] (1955/1975) has clearly demonstrated the process of transition from a "pre-ruth era" in which the little child can inadvertently or unintentionally display aggression, since "if [[destruction]] be part of the aim in [[The Id|the id ]] impulse, then destruction is only incidental to id satisfaction" (p. 210), to a subsequent [[stage]] when the child is concerned [[about]] his object. He then has worries about it and is able to feel compassion or potentially creative reparative wishes, which prevents him from remaining cruel toward his object.
Of course, these drives are [[primitive]] and potentially cruel toward the object. Throughout his [[life]], [[The Subject|the subject ]] will have to find compromises between the claims of the [[narcissistic]] pole of his drives and the intensity of his love for the object. However, the object's [[tolerance]] of the subject's drive-based egoism varies. In fact, some parents and spouses are better able than [[others]] to tolerate narcissistic egocentrism in their child or partner and are accordingly less vulnerable to their "cruelty".
==See Also==
* [[Mastery]]
# ——. (1905e). Fragment of an analysis of a [[case]] of [[Hysteria]]. SE, 7: 1-122.
# ——. (1915b). [[Thoughts]] for the [[times]] on war and death. SE, 14: 273-300.
# ——. (1915c). [[Instincts and Their Vicissitudes|Instincts and their vicissitudes]]. SE, 14: 109-140.
# ——. (1919e). "A child is being beaten": a contribution to the study of the origin of sexual perversions. SE, 17: 175-204.
# ——. (1923b). [[The Ego and the Id|The ego and the id]]. SE, 19: 1-66.
# ——. (1924c). The [[economic]] problem of [[masochism]]. SE, 19: 155-170.
# ——. (1930a). [[Civilization and Its Discontents|Civilization and its discontents]]. SE, 21: 57-145.
[[Category:New]]
