"Somtimes I feel like somebody's watching me. . ."

Freud suggests that when trauma occurs people become subjection's of themselves. Trauma occurs in reality, and although people may try to block it out, it is then relived through the subconscious, making the individual subject to itself. I thought that the the example/study Freud uses of "children's play" was really helpful in illustrating this point. In the example, Freud studies the actions and habits of his grandson. The reoccurring "traumatic" event in his young grandson's everyday life is when his mother leaves to go out. He does not cry. Instead, he makes an attempt to gain control over the temporary loss of his mother on a subconscious level. Freud calls this "fantasy control". He writes that, "Identity both arises and is constituted on the grounds of loss. This is a loss, moreover, that can never be overcome except in and through the fantasy of mastery." (79) So, like the child playing his game of throwing toys about and then "finding" them again, he takes control of his loss (mother leaving) through the "fantasy control" offered by his own game. This need to gain control and make sense of his mother leaving is through the subconscious.

The painting above is called Retreat Syndrome, 2002, by Camille Rose Garcia. She did this particular painting and others like it after 9/11. Garcia focuses on the fear propaganda and conspiracy theories that were dished out to America through the media by the government. People felt the need to escape from reality and into their own fantasies. Garcia uses the example that people began taking more medication to calm anxieties. She takes the title Retreat Syndrome from a short story by Philip K. Dick. The character in the story undergoes a traumatic event, and compensates by constructing a fantasy world in his mind. He eventually realizes the fantasy is not true, and is faced with the reality he was running away from. I thought this was a good example of Freud's "fantasy control" and how it pertains to society today.

I also thought Frantz Fanon's excerpt from "Black Skin/White Masks" was interesting in terms of being subjected by ones own body through society. Fanon begins writing about the things he wants to accomplish and do in life, but then becomes aware of the blackness of his body. He loses his "self" and now sees his "self as a body." With this constant physical awareness of his body, he begins to try other ways to "whiten" himself or to make his ideas consistent with mainstream society since his body is not. Fanon terms this process "denegrification." Why? Is the need to become a part of society that strong that we constantly feel the need to prove ourselves so we're not shunned? Do we constantly walk around wondering if other people "know"or "notice"? At what point do we sign ourselves over? Are we given a choice? Is the choice fabricated? Do we have to be a part of society? Why do we want to?

Foucault writes about both the quarantine of the plague victims at the end of the 17th century and its need to form an ordered utopic society, as well as Bentham and his creation of the Panopticon. Bentham writes that "power should be visible and unverifiable." His Panopticon stays true to this point. Inmate's cells were organized around a tall central guard tower. The cells had windows so that each inmate could clearly see the guard tower (a sign of power and authority), although they could never actually see if there was anyone in the tower at any given point watching them. The inmates assume subjection simply based on the visibility of power and of the continuous thought or chance of someone watching them. Foucault writes, "He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraits of power; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection." (99) The prison society has conditioned their way of thinking and doing by making power central and visible. If the inmates were to make the choice to do something wrong, they know there is a chance that they are being watched. That awareness is constantly on their mind because they can see it and are thus reminded of the consequences of their actions before they do them. This reminds me of our own society and the constant surveillance of citizens allowed by the Patriot Act. Someone is always watching.

Foucault also suggests that in a regulated, disciplined society, everyone has their own place within to aid the overall functioning. People are subjected to rules and laws by jobs, at home, and of course, by the government. We ultimately subject ourselves to the rules of society, but what choice do we really have if we want to live within; if we want to be a part of the "group"? Do we then subject ourselves by choice? Foucault suggests that the individual is made within the society, that they are not lost. But does this mean that our individualism is fabricated by society? Are we made to think that we are truly individual, but in reality, just subjects within society?