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Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Term Paper

The sexual energy is released, contorted in a sadomasochistic fashion that fed into the energy needed to run a military, run a war, or to conquer and administer an empire. The state has hijacked the sexual urge and put it into the service of the state. This was done in Japan as the government hijacked the bushido philosophical code. This was done wholesale with all of its elements, sexual included. We must visit Freud again as we plumb the depths of the war and its connection with sexuality. After hopes for humanity's peaceful advancement died in the trenches of Europe, more examination was necessary as Freud reflected upon the statements of his friend, Albert Einstein. Freud posits a death instinct with humanity itself, thereby confirming the suspicion that violence had a biological basis. This might suffice as the explanation for regular, run of the mill violence. However, the wholesale slaughter of the First World War and the rise of figures such as Adolf Hitler in Germany (Freud corresponded with Einstein during the meteoric rise of Hitler in 1932) demanded a more systematic explanation. Freud finally concedes that there is a death instinct, one that is not fully satisfied even in the most affluent environments. Seemingly, human intelligence accentuated this (Freud 1959 283-287).

It would seem to this author that sex and violence have come together. War is the original womb of...

Violence and sex come out together in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence as they always do in war, that is, confused, convoluted and fighting each other. Like Siamese twins, they are joined at the hip and can only be separated (if at all) by painfully and carefully dissecting the issue on a microlevel and take into consideration what humans think and feel on a subconscious level. When we look into the Id, we then understand the dark and evil things that all of us keep hidden in the deepest recesses of our souls, the things that keep us engaged in acts of sadomasochistic fury even when there are enough riches to go around. Only when we fully understand the sex and violence in the Id will we be able to satisfy it before it craves for more war.
Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works . XVII. London, U.K.: Hogarth Press,

1955.

179-204. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. Ed. Collected Papers. 1st. 5. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1959. 273-287. Print.

Jackson Jr., E. "Desire at Cross (-Cultural) Purposes: Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Merry Christmas, Mr.

Lawrence." Asia Critique. 2.1 (1994): 133-174. Print.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Dir. Nagisa Oshima. Perf. David Bowie, Jack Thompson. Stage VU,

1983. Film. .

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works . XVII. London, U.K.: Hogarth Press,

1955.

179-204. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. Ed. Collected Papers. 1st. 5. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1959. 273-287. Print.
1983. Film. <http://stagevu.com/video/xceksodpqwid>.
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