226 Ideals in the Modern World
of the voice,” though by and large this voice goes undetected. But he
also suggests that we may, at times, elevate the volume on the su-
perego, hear its dictates, and respond to them critically. We may rec-
ognize in that voice the trace of the parent’s voice— entirely adequate
to guide the vulnerable child, but not fi tted to the reasonably capable
man or woman that we can now take ourselves to be. We might
recognize the voice as one infl amed by the infl uence of overbearing
fi gures of authority or of fi re- and- brimstone religions. We may, to
adapt some terms of Harold Bloom’s, overhear the way in which we
talk to ourselves and by virtue of that overhearing we may change.
But not a great deal; Freud does not allow for that. He famously
said that the objective of psychoanalysis was to transform hysterical
misery into common, everyday unhappiness. That is an extreme
statement— sometimes Freud wants more than unhappiness, espe-
cially if the subject begins further along the road than in hysterical
misery. But the point is clear: within the realm of being that Freud
describes (and in some sense creates) one cannot ask for too much.
Life can get a little better; the spirit (if one can use that word) may
breathe a bit more freely. There might be a little more room to be
productive and cultivate some awareness of others (to the Freudian
self this does not come easily); one might even enhance one’s ca-
pacity to experience a little plea sure here and there. Yet at Freud’s
back one hears Nietz sche: he has his little pleasures for the day and
his little pleasures for the night, but there is always a regard for
health. Yes, with Freud there is always a regard for health.
“The psyche must know how to make deals.” This is not Sig-
mund Freud talking but rather Carl Gustav Jung, in what is likely
the most Freudian moment of his life. Jung was interested in any-
thing but deals for himself—he wanted everything. But Freud’s is
ultimately a pragmatic philosophy: he seeks to get a little more
without losing all he has. Thinking of the ideal life, Marx said that
a man would be a hunter in the morning, a fi sherman in the