Rudnev, V. P. Smoking and Obsessions

Abstract: The article studies the connection between smoking and obsessions. The author assumes that smoking relates to obsession through death instinct. The author of the article states that there are the two opposite processes ongoing in human inner world, hysterical and compulsive. The former is realized through difference and the latter is realized through repetition. Nature (the hysterical) mostly represents itself as repetition and culture (the compulsive) represents itself as the difference. But nature and culture cannot exist without one another. Repetition without difference is a psychic death and difference without repetition is a natural irresponsibility of organic life. According to the author, smoking allows to realize these two processes as a disjunctive synthesis of hysteria and obsession in a creative way. However, it is important to quit smoking in order to realize one’s creative potentials apart from death instinct.

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