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"The organic periodicity of the sexual process has persisted, it is true, but its effect on mental sexual excitation has
been almost reversed. This change is connected primarily with the diminishing importance of the olfactory stimuli
by means of which the menstrual process produced sexual excitement in the mind of the male. Their function was
taken over by visual stimuli, which could operate permanently, instead of intermittently like the olfactory ones. The
taboo of menstruation has its origin in this organic repression, which acted as a barrier against a phase of
development that had been surpassed; all its other motivations are probably of a secondary nature. (Cf. C. D. Daly,
)Hindumythologie und Kastrationskomplex, ) Imago, Vol. XIII, 1927. ) This process is repeated on a different level
when the gods of a foregone cultural epoch are changed into demons in the next. The diminution in importance of
olfactory stimuli seems itself, however, to be a consequence of manOs erecting himself from the earth, of his
adoption of an upright gait, which made his genitals, that before had been covered, visible and in need of protection
and so evoked feelings of shame. ManOs erect posture, therefore, would represent the beginning of the momentous
process of cultural evolution. The chain of development would run from this onward, through the diminution in
the importance of olfactory stimuli and the isolation of women at their periods, to a time when visual stimuli
became paramount, the genitals became visible, further till sexual excitation became constant and the family was
founded, and so to the threshold of human culture. This is only a theoretical speculation, but it is important enough
to be worth checking carefully by the conditions obtaining among the animals closely allied to man.
There is an unmistakable social factor at work in the impulse of civilization towards cleanliness, which has been
subsequently justified by considerations of hygiene but had nevertheless found expression before they were
appreciated. The impulse towards cleanliness originates in the striving to get rid of excretions which have become
unpleasant to the sense-perceptions. We know that things are different in the nursery. Excreta arouse no aversion
in children; they seem precious to them, as being parts of their own bodies which have been detached from them.
The training of children is very energetic in this particular; its object is to expedite the development that lies ahead
of them, according to which the excreta are to become worthless, disgusting, horrible, and despicable to them. Such
a reversal of values would be almost impossible to bring about, were it not that these substances expelled from the
body are destined by their strong odours to share the fate that overtook the olfactory stimuli after man had erected-20-
himself from the ground. Anal erotism, therefore, is from the first subjected to the organic repression which opened
up the way to culture. The social factor which has been active in the further modifications of anal erotism comes
into play with the fact that in spite of all manOs evolutionary progress the smell of his own excretions is scarcely
disagreeable to him yet, but so far only that of the evacuations of others. The man who is not clean, i. e.. who does
not eliminate his excretions, therefore offends others, shows no consideration for themea fact which is exemplified
in the commonest and most forcible terms of abuse. It would be incomprehensible, too, that man should use as an
abusive epithet the name of his most faithful friend in the animal world, if dogs did not incur the contempt of men
through two of their characteristics, i. e., that they are creatures of smell and have no horror of excrement, and,
secondly, that they are not ashamed of their sexual functions." -Freud, Civilization and its Discontents |
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| Stephen Gaghan |
I can't separate the process of writing from the visual process. I'm speaking only for myself here, but I'm a highly visual writer. In my imagination, when I'm thinking of a scene, I think of every last detail of it: The space, the color palette, the blocking of the actors, the placement of the camera. |