Archive of April 2008
2008.04.24
Vulcan Logic
I think Freud would have something to say against the Vulcan's logic concerning emotions. According to the Vulcan philosophy, love is the most dangerous of all the emotions because it produces an emotional storm of jealousy and grief, among others. The way to deal with this is to learn to suppress all emotions, to keep the under control, otherwise they will consume you.
According to Freudian theory, suppression and repression cause a lot of problems with the individual doing the suppressing and repressing. Those emotions have an energy, and when they are not allowed an outlet--they seek ways to become apparent. In essence, the emotions that are repressed negotiate a compromise with the ego to come out in some hidden form. Freud discovered this with hysterical symptoms.
Hysteria is when there is a physical ailment without a physical cause. Freud concluded that these ailments were caused by something psychological. For example, someone experiences severe wrist and hand pain; they cannot move it. But, from a doctor's perspective, there is no reason why the hand should be unable to move. Freud found underlying causes to this type of ailment, and he called it hysteria. Something like this hand thing, Freud would probably have attributed to masturbation.
Of course, it should be noted that hysteria is not the only way that these suppressed emotions become manifest. They can manifest in a variety of different ways: projection and sublimation are two other ways.
Back to the Vulcans -- they are different from humans. However, they are born with emotions and later learn to suppress them. Their emotions are very intense. Perhaps, for them, it has become necessary to suppress emotions. Natural Vulcan emotions are erratic and volatile, according to Tuvoc. Were they humans, however, the story would be different. Too bad they aren't real--because a case study of Vulcans would be really fascinating. I'm sure Freud would agree with me.