Arrested Development and Philosophy_ They've Made a Huge Mistake - Kristopher G. Phillips [20]
According to Freud, because of this division, the brothers could afford no alternative but to renounce the women they all desired, the women who drove them to the murder of the tyrannical father in the first place. The totem animal—the sacred animal of the tribe—is a replacement of the lost father. The tribe worships the totem animal by murdering, consuming, and subsequently mourning it. But even within the ritual there is an attempt at self-justification: “If our father had treated us in the way the totem does, we should never have felt tempted to kill him.”14
. . . and Taboo: Les Cousins Dangereux
Freud also wrote about incest outside of the Oedipus complex in the book Totem and Taboo. The primal brothers become divided after murdering their tyrannical father, and so the taboo of incest was meant as a remedy that would keep them from fighting over women in their own tribe. Whatever its true origin, the prohibition against incest remains with us. For example, if you were to sing a karaoke rendition of “Afternoon Delight” with a relative—say, your niece or nephew—you might get some strange looks.
George Michael is concerned with the prohibition of incest to the point of asking if kissing Maeby is illegal in the pilot episode. Strangely enough, each time they break the taboo, George Michael and Maeby return to the prohibition against incest. After kissing Maeby, in the first episode, George Michael yells, “I knew it was against the law!” when the SEC shows up.
In the episode “The Righteous Brothers,” George Michael kisses Maeby and “steals second.” Their fun is ruined, however, when Gob walks in and says, “Dad’s gonna be crushed!” referring to George Sr., who he hid in the crawlspace beneath the collapsing model home. George Michael, panicking, responds, “We don’t have to tell him!” thinking that Gob was talking about Michael.
Gob has a similar reaction to the idea that he has transgressed the prohibition of incest. In the episode, “Family Ties,” Michael is investigating Nellie—NOT Tobias—and discovers three things: (1) Nellie is possibly his sister, (2) Nellie is a prostitute, and (3) Gob/Franklin is her pimp. Gob offers Michael a “family discount” for her services. Michael responds, “Family discount is right, Gob. This is the sister that I’ve been talking about.” Gob responds tearfully, “Maybe I should have been getting a family rate. Oh my God.”
Pop-Pop Gets Put on the Couch?
Who knows in what direction Freud’s theories might have gone if he had met the Bluths during the development of psychoanalysis? Tobias’s latent homosexuality, Buster’s Oedipus complex, and even Michael’s need to keep his family together would have made excellent case studies. And we will just have to wonder what Freud would have made of Tobias, the never-nude.
NOTES
1. Sigmund Freud, “An Autobiographical Study,” The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995), p. 37.
2. Ibid. “Repression,” p. 105.
3. Ibid. “Ego and the Id,” p. 632.
4. Sigmund Freud, “Instincts and Their Vicissitudes,” General Psychological Theory. Introduction by Philip Rieff (New York: Touchstone, 1997), p. 85. Sigmund Freud, Outline of Psycho-Analysis (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989), p. 14.
5. Ibid., p. 77.
6. An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, p. 15.
7. Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ed. James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), p. 29.
8. Sigmund Freud, Psychopathology of Everyday Life, ed. James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), p. 290.
9. Ernest Jones, Hamlet and Oedipus (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976), p. 75.
10. Ibid., p. 77.
11. Ibid., p. 77.
12. Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, ed. James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), p. 156.
13. Ibid., p. 178.
14. Ibid., p. 179.
and: the-op.com
Chapter 4
DON’T KNOW THYSELF
Gob and the Wisdom of Bad Faith
Daniel