Fury: Heroic, bestial and collective

Journal/Book: Psychopathology. 2000; 33: Allschwilerstrasse 10, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland. Karger. 171-181.

Abstract: In his furies and frenzies, man's humanity is pushed to its outermost limits; his human potential is inordinately stretched. In poetic, heroic frenzy, man reaches the gods and divinity. Yet this poetic frenzy is not an oblivion, but a memory; his frenzy is not born from forgetting himself, but from a strengthening of his own ego. Bestial fury is the tale of the self-destructive consequences of attempting to use ferocity and fury against one's own enemies, and the endeavors to keep these forces in check and bend them towards one's own ends. However, the fact that man displays anger and wrath is not the sign of a descent towards the feral, animal realm, but, on the contrary, of an ascent, Man has risen up towards civilization. With this have come collective furies- the common angers of a human multitude, where the single personality is nullified. Might it be that even heroic frenzy, or perhaps above all heroic frenzy, has been liberally used in our times to unleash bestial and collective fury?

Note: Article Rossi P, Via Landucci 10, I-50136 Florence, ITALY

Keyword(s): bestial fury; collective fury; heroic frenzy; irony

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