Music and Psychanalysis

As has been previously discussed, an inadequacy of Marcuse's attempt to ground a Socialist, i. e. Eroticized, society on Freud's concept of the Psyche, is that the innocent condition of the latter, Primary Narcissism, consists in a state of Wonder, with respect to which a concept of Practice, which is intrinsic to Socialism, is extrinsic.  Marcuse tacitly acknowledges that inadequacy by deriving from a source other than Freud an image that could account for Practice--Orpheus, a player of Music.  But, by doing so, he just as tacitly acknowledes that the adequate Psychoanalytic ground of his social goal is elsewhere than in the writings of Freud.  Indeed, the involvement of Music in the model is a reminder that the originator of the Psychoanalytic perspective is Nietzsche, inspired by the innovations of Wagner that liberate from repression a hitherto sub- and un-conscious realm of experience.  Furthermore, Nietzsche likens the occasion of that inspiration to Dionysian festivals, which, as fertility rituals, are governed by Eros.  And, the contemplative counterpart of the Dionysian is the Apollonian.  So, the main ingredients of Marcuse's scheme can be found in Birth of Tragedy--Dionysus as Orpheus, the Dionysian as Id and Eros, Apollo as Narcissus, and the Apollonian as Ego.  But, of perhaps greatest potential relevance to Marcuse's project are Nietzsche's brief descriptions in Birth of Tragedy of a Class-free society.