-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: FW: Forensic Noir
Date:   Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:52:33 -0500 (EST)
From:   Norman Rosenblood <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Institute for Psychological Study of the Arts <[log in to unmask]>



 (114 lines) ------------------

 Freud had a couple of interesting things to say about the theme of
eschatology in CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS:

"In consequence of this primary mutual hostility of human beings,
civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration."

or

"If one were to yield to a first impression, one would say that
sublimation is a vicissitude which has been forced upon the instincts
entirely by civilization."


Kurt Eissler has a paper--"the Fall of Man" in the PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY OF
THE CHILD--that spells it out even more graphically.
Hurray for the powers of denial and the best of all possible worlds.

Norm Rosenblood



-------------------------------------
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Murray Schwartz wrote:

> > From:         Claire Kahane
> > Subject:      Re: Forensic Noir
> >
> > I think we are seeing evidence of the growing subliminal apprehension that
> > we are uncontrolledly driving our planet toward destruction; these
> > proliferating images of death could be an attempt to master the idea of
> > death through visual representations, i.e. to contain the fears by providing
> > images of death-containers, ie. Corpses.  Does this sound too far out?
> > Freud's death drive seem to be another way of formulating what Graham Clarke
> > is saying about the last taboo, the ultimate desublimation. Certainly 21st
> > century politics seems to be driven by a destructive urgency toward
> > apocalypse. Scary stuff.
> >
> > -- Claire Kahane
> >
> >
> >
> > >       From: Graham Clarke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > >       Subject: Re: FW: Forensic Noir
> > >
> > >       The British TV series 'Silent Witness' seems to me to have become
> > >       increasingly obsessed with realistic portrayals of autopsy and violent
> > >       death which, given that the focus is a team of forensic scientists, may
> > >       be fair enough but I suspect that the ante has been upped by the public
> > >       broadcast of the autopsy done by the physician who plastinates and
> > >       sculpts corpses.
> > >       In searching for his name using a search engine I discovered that HBO
> > >       have a programme that has:-
> > >       'An Actual Autopsy with Dr. Michael Baden and a Reexamination of
> > >       Autopsy's Most Complex Cases'
> > >       Some people said that after the repressive desublimation of sex in our
> > >       cultures during the last 40 years or so that the last taboo was death,
> > >       perhaps we are witnessing its (repressively desublimated) exploration?
> > >
> > >       Graham
> > >
> > >       Murray Schwartz wrote:
> > >>         From: Dianne Hunter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > >>         Subject: Forensic Noir
> > >>
> > >>         I have been noticing with alarm our cultural preoccupation with dead
> > >>         bodies--the popular HBO series SIX FEET UNDER, plus all those TV
> > >> shows
> > >>         examining details of the corpses of crime victims.  There was
> > >> recently a
> > >>         CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION article on the new genre called
> > >> "Forensic
> > >>         Noir," focused on autopsy. At the University of London CULTURE AND
> > >> THE
> > >>         UNCONSCIOUS conference last July, an artist self-described as a
> > >> victim of
> > >>         paternal physical abuse in childhood, presented art work consisting
> > >> of
> > >>         photographs of murder scenes the artist had imagined and staged with
> > >>         actors, props.
> > >>
> > >>         In the old TV show LAW AND ORDER, a crime scene sets off the first
> > >> half
> > >>         hour of the program, during which the police identify a suspect to
> > >> blame
> > >>         for the corpse; the show supplied narrative closure by staging a
> > >> trial in
> > >>         the second half hour of the program.  Now, in these more recent
> > >> shows, we
> > >>         are getting just the corpses.
> > >>
> > >>         DH
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

 ===========================================================================

Norman Rosenblood, Ph.D., Training and Supervising Analyst
c/o Chester New Hall, McMaster University
1200 Main Street West                   Telephone (905) 525-7601
Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4L9
Canada
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