In chapter two of his Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle entitled, 'The Origin of the Semiotic of Impulses', Klossowski says that Nietzsche's view is that the conscious life of the individual is subordinated to fluctuations of intensities of the impulses. On this interpretation there is the 'conscious' agent and the so-called 'unconscious' activity of impulses in relation to this agent --for it is the agent that is 'unconscious' of this 'subterranean' activity'.
What then is the relationship between the two?
Klossowski asks whether this relationship is different or the same as Freud's iceberg understanding of the relationship between consciouness and unconscious: ie., consciousness is but an iceberg in the sea of the unconsciousness.
Freud himself claimed to have been in important respects anticipated, though not influenced, by Nietzsche. He said he was surprised when first reading Nietzsche how much he fitted with his own discoveries. I've always understood Nietzsche in relation to Freud---a proto-Freud. Trevor, from what I can remember, does not.
Let us seen what Klossowski does with this issue. What I will do in this post is unpack the relationships as outlined in the text. He says:
"Inasmuch as exteriority is installed in the agent by the code of everyday signs, it is only on the basis of this code that the agent can make declarations or state opinions, think or not think, remain silent or break the silence. The agent thinks only as a product of this code."
Klossowski goes on to say that:
"Now such a thinking agent exists only because of the greater or lesser resistance of the impulsive forces --which constitue the agent as a (corporeal) unity with respect to the code of everyday signs..Where does the ebbing flow of the intensity [of the impulsive forces] go?It overflows the fixity of signs and continues on, as it were, in their intervals: each interval(thus each silence)belongs(outside the linkage of signs) to the fluctuations of an impulsive intensity. Is this the 'unconscious'?
We are unconscious of the conflict of impulses going on inside us, in terms of fear, resentment, rage and emotional suffering resulting from living a damaged life. Hence the need for Stoic tonics, the transvaluation of all values or psychonalytic therapy to help us live a better kind of life.
Klossowski takes aim at this classical reading, as he sees Nietzsche to be engaged in destroying the foundations of morality:
"Nietzsche pursues his inquiry in order to make himself finally admit that there is neither subject, nor object, nor will, nor aim, nor meaning ---not only at the origin but for now and always."
The impression gleaned from this is that we are our bodily impulses.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at October 1, 2004 11:49 PM | TrackBack