PSYCHIC ENERGY

"How are self-perception and behavior influenced by the movement of energy? According to Berne, the ego state that has the most free cathexis at any given moment is perceived as the self" [Messina & Sambin 50]

the self is fluid and personality is a result of various spontaneous experiences in the mind, followed by subjective interpretation by individuals .

OBJECT CATHEXIS

Transferral of psychic energy onto an external object or being

UNBOUND + FREE = ACTIVE

the id doesnt distinguish between fantasy and reality

object cathexis correlates to my current work in which I explore the instinct to destroy or own another body out of love. I look at this in a mother/child relationship where the mother cannot allow another being, also understood as part of her own being, to separate. the mother transfers her psychic energy onto the smaller being, while aspects of the psyche are divided into multiple bodies. I am also interested in how the self is defined and what ingredients make up an individual self. "Berne’s Theory of Cathexis
and Its Links to Modern Neuroscience" by Irene Messina and Marco Sambin elaborately discusses different forms of cathexis and how these energies influence behavior. I learned that desires stemming from the id are transferred into the conscious mind, which might lead to violent or indulgent behavior, but that the id doesn't distinguish between fantasy and reality. This means that violent/grotesque fantasies that stay in the mind can satisfy the id just as much as an external action. my work generally contends with personal trauma and mythology, and this research informs my ability to comment on these things from a more objective/research based perspective.

<- this is a preliminary sketch I did for the animation I am working on. object cathexis is demonstrated here as the mother's inability to cope with the separation between herself and the new body produced. her psychic energy is expressed upon the child as it is reabsorbed into her body allowing her to feel loved and whole.

i work intuitively and in conversation with the material when filming, and when starting to shoot this scene i decided against adding any detailed reproductive parts or orifices to express concisely a division within one metaphorical body where the flesh expands into another dimension and can be retrieved through meshing of the clay. the child/mother are then less divided as the child did not come from an isolated place inside the mother, rather it is a representation of fluid identity and various selves/relationships within the individual self