Psychoanalysis and the unconsciousLawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Philosophy
Psychoanalysis and the unconscious
Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Psychoanalysis
In sucking the hands also come awake. It is strange to notice the
pictures by the old masters of the Madonna and Child. Sometimes the
strange round belly of the Infant seems the predominant mystery-center,
and sometimes from the tiny breast it is as if a delicate light glowed,
the light of love. As if the breast should illumine the outer world in
its seeking administering love. As if the breast of the Infant glimmered
its light of discovery on the adoring Mother, and she bowed, submissive
to the revelation.
The little hands and arms wave, circulate, trying to touch, to grasp, to
know. To grasp in caress, not to reive. To grasp in order to identify
themselves with the cherished discovery, to realize the beloved. To
cherish, to realize the beloved. To administer the outward-seeking self
to the beloved. We give this the exclusive name of love. But it is
indeed only the one direction of love, the outgoing from the lovely
center of the breast—the nipples seeking, the hands delicately,
caressively exploring, the eyes at last waking to perception. The eyes,
the hands, these wake and are alert from the center of the breast. But
the ears and feet move from the deep lower centers—the recipient ears,
imbibing vibrations, the feet which press the resistant earth,
controlled from the powerful lower ganglia of the spine. And thus great
scope of activity opens, in the hands that wave and explore, the eyes
that try to perceive, the legs, the little knees that thrust, thrust
away, the small feet that curl and twinkle upon themselves, ready for
the obstinate earth.
And so, also a wholeness is established within the individual. The two
fields of consciousness, the first upper and the first lower, are based
upon a correspondence of polarity. The first great complex circuit is
now set up _within the individual_, between the upper and lower centers.
The individual consciousness has now its own integral independent
existence and activity, apart from external connection. It has its right
to be alone.
CHAPTER V
THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED
Consciousness develops on successive planes. On each plane there is the
dual polarity, positive and negative, of the sympathetic and voluntary
nerve centers. The first plane is established between the poles of the
sympathetic solar plexus and the voluntary lumbar ganglion. This is the
active first plane of the subjective unconscious, from which the whole
of consciousness arises.
Immediately succeeding the first plane of subjective dynamic
consciousness arises the corresponding first plane of objective
consciousness, the objective unconscious, polarized in the cardiac
plexus and the thoracic ganglion, in the breast. There is a perfect
correspondence in difference between the first abdominal and the first
thoracic planes. These two planes polarize each other in a fourfold
polarity, which makes the first great field of individual,
self-dependent consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account