Oldal 46 [46]
of an ideal world, while the other wants to retreat into realíty. It
is a constant struggle, and it is where intelligence is born. This
constant struggle was studied also by natural philosophy, knowing
full well that there is an inner dynamism in nature whose basis is
the dialectic between finite and infinite. (Forster 1984. pp. 179.)
When we consider the human, we find that the two sides are in
constant struggle with, and this is not necessarily a description
of schizophrenia. I want to be better and more, but I must con¬
stantly be faced with my limitations. I want to be the strongest,
most beautiful, the smartest; I want to be immortal, to create
tremendous things: these are the wondrous dreams of a child. The
child dreams beauty and fairytales. Becoming an adult is a slow
but painful awakening.
The Greeks asked the question the most tragically: Can the same
remain the same and the whole remain whole? Can the self-remain
the self? We find this staged not just in the myth of Narcissus, but
also in creation myths. There is something that controls almost
every process. Love (Eros) is made into a force that simultaneously
separates and holds together. It is the most ancient element, present
at the very beginning of creation. Plato writes in the Symposium:
Socrates, in body and in soul, and when we reach maturity it is natural
that we desire to give birth. It is not possible to give birth in what is
ugly, only in the beautiful. I say that because the intercourse of aman
and a woman is a kind of giving birth. It is something divine, this
process of pregnancy and procreation. It is an aspect of immortality
in the otherwise mortal creature, and it cannot take place in what
is discordant. Now, the ugly is not in accord with anything divine,
whereas the beautiful accords well. So at this birth Beauty takes
on the roles of Fate and Eileithyia. For this reason, whenever the
pregnant being approaches the beautiful, it is in favourable mood.
It melts with joy, gives birth and procreates. In the face of ugliness,
however, it frowns and contracts with pain, and shrivelling up it
fails to procreate, and it holds back its offspring in great suffering.
(Plato 2008. 206.c-e.)