Reich talks quite a bit about Nietzsche in his book Character Analysis schizophrenically relates him to Gaugin and Van Gogh-in terms of mental illness, saying that their final big breakdown was because of homo normalis-the result of homo normalis being continually locked up and armored emotionally and though Nietzsche, Gaugin, and Van Gogh were truly "off", homo normalis has little or no tolerance for emotional expression, thus adding to the neurosis of the three.

Reich wrote about the liberal trivializing of human sexuality and compares it with them-philosophers and artists. People who fall under the category of "hip" or "bohemian." He said that many "modern, liberal people" are incapabable of a serious relationship and their sexual experience fall under the childs play category, attempting to philosophize sex and human relationships.

In Character Analysis he compares this with people who rely on philosophical literary quotes- they are reaching out through their longing and for a feeling they don't have, part of an emotional impotence-

In essence they leave us with pretty words that go no where-

When you look at even love poets like-Percy Byce Shelly, Samuel Taylor Cooleridge,

and another one, the name escape me, most of them are self admittantly unable to carry on a real relationship with the opposite sex and so they spend a lot of time creating "dreamy half truths" trying to explain something they can't feel, much the way a painter would try to paint something they can't see.

When we look at Ralph Waldo Emerson's work-one of my favorites,

in his poem "Give All To Love" he talks about jumping in to love without rationale,

but look how he ends it,

"Thou thou loved her as thyself,

a self of purer clay,

though her parting dims the day,

stealing grace from all alive,

when the half gods go, the gods arrive"

This is a man who's entire family met with death, literally died, and earlier in the poem he describes love as a god,

So, is he saying that people experience true love when they die-?

He is comparing the loss of a female companion to someone else-when he says "a joy [she found] apart from the" but his emotional state is one of death...this is what makes the poem so "deep"

So, basically-his work is also a "zen" concept-which is a parallel of masochism-(see my earlier blog on zen parenting.)

A hallmark of zen thinking is escaping feeling and entering into a world of numb, nothingness- is another goal to a masochist, someone who has to hurt themselves to feel-and has not attained satisfaction in doing so.

I am not at all discreditting the tribute of tremendous literary works-but we need not exclude the persons personal life and where their work was coming from-

As Proust hid out in his cork lined apartment, or Sand worked her diary out into fictional character's (repressed anger), and Flaubert's inability to carry on a female relationship.....all factor into the equation.

Literary work- and Philosophers are no different, they serve to fill our "longing"- but it is a need that will not be met through reading and philosophizing.

This is the very reason why I am so critical of Dyer, Hayes, and Myss- their pretending to be gurus and having it all figured out is apart of their defensive layer-a character defense-

I just don't buy it......

If you are in love with someone like a "love guru" and you feel like you are being played, well trust your instincts. Within you -you believe this person knows something you don't or has the answers and has it figured out, like a Louise Hayes sort, I would encourage you to stay on your toes and realize that alot of this type of behavior is a clear indication that someone is numb and cut off emotionally and that the appearance of having it figured out is a phallic narcissist layer. Once someone has entered into this incurable defense layer-it is difficult to reach them-they are stuck in a defensive layer of philosophy....that boils down to nothing.....