[Cog.sci.] Psychoanalysis and mass psychogenic epidemic

Licensed under the GPLv3, by RelevantInfo.

Psychoanalysis is a somewhat outdated field of psychology which inspired many modern fields of psychological and neuroscientific studies.
Most literate people are familiar with the concepts of the conscious and subconscious. However, less people are familiar with the concepts of libidinal (sexual) energy, defense mechanisms, primary and secondary processes. If you're not familiar with these concepts, please take some time to read more about these concepts in an encyclopedia before reading further.

Psychoanalysis tends to reduce everything to the relationship of the psychological aparatus with its lebidinal urges. Lebidinal urges feed the unconscious with energy and drive, and can be either channeled towards primary processes (actions with little elaboration, which seek to maximize pleasure - instinctual impulses, in other words), or secondary processes (more elaborate, logical thinking). Nevertheless, according to psychoanalytic theory, this lebidinal energy tends to be channeled towards some object, be it in the unconscious, conscious, or external realm.

The defense mechanisms are here to help us repress the lebidinal energy of the unconscious. If some individuals have weak defense mechanisms (because they were weakened, or because of the inherent structure of the psyche), the lebidinal energy is channeled inappropriately, through various forms of primitive mechanisms, such as projection, projective identification, identification, introjection, and so on.

Information warfare has two key elements to learn from psychoanalysis.
First, is that people with weak defense mechanisms will tend to identify themselves in the content posted online, and through this process of identification, they will introject, or, in other words, adapt the qualities of the object which is represented by the content.

Second, is that it is possible to channel the libidinal energy towards some objects by posting various forms of content, and make the person feel either attracted or in conflict with some entity, because in the unconscious, the person would feel a conflict or attraction with the entity associated with the object related to their libidinal urges.

One example is making the leader of some country look like a big tough guy who gets all the women. This is likely to trigger the primary instincts related to conflict between sexual competitors in males. In the unconscious, they would project their feelings about the sexual jealousy towards some world leader on the country, without realizing neither the former nor the latter, since the content of their thought is repressed, as such instincts relate to the primary processes.

Another example is to associate some country with beautiful, sexy women. This is likely to make the country look desirable in the unconscious for obvious reasons, without those who are influenced realizing the fact, as this, once again, relates to the primary processes.

The lesson is clear: make those whom you dislike appear as tough guys who get all the women in order to trigger an instinctual subconscious conflict relating to the primary processes. Associate those whom you like with sexy, attractive women to make people project their feelings from the object towards the associated concept on an unconscious level, once again triggering the primary processes.

Also, associating libidinally attractive objects with anything is likely to make it easier to remember, and seem more desirable.

When thinking in the real of psychoanalysis, think in the real of libidinal energy and instincts, and their relation to the object towards which the libidinal energy is channeled.

When too much libidinal energy keeps accumulating without being released in a large group of people, and then some event suddenly releases it (be it in an aggressive, paranoid, projective, hysterical, or any other primitive way), mass psychogenic illness (mass psychosis or mass hysteria) often ensure due to the temporary fracturing of the psychic apparatus in more severe cases, or the breakdown of the defense mechanisms in less severe cases. Such practices can be used to trigger mass hysterias and mass psychosis when applied correctly.

Manipulating the unconscious gives an access to a lot of power, and with power comes great responsibility. Various patterns of interactions between objects and channeling of libidinal energy can be created in the unconscious using information warfare, and this has to be used appropriately. In order to construct such patterns and interrelationships with the goal of channeling the libidinal energy, one must first learn the method of free associations, and with it in mind, study the content produced by various online communities before starting any informational warfare campaign.