OT: Spike, Freud and Vampires

[C A Moore <cab_moore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Seeing that Ive been writing (oh so slowly) a fic
that will deal with the origin (and nature) of
vampires (and of slayers) Ive been thinking a bit
about it, and as an attempt to bounce a few ideas, and
maybe slay some writers block heres some thoughts,
pretty much Psych 101 meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Spikes post-chip identity changes have been causing a
lot of contention  is he evil or is he good?

For convenience, to avoid horribly convoluted
qualifications, the Jossverse will be treated as
reality in this argument.

To try and take a look at vampire psychology we have
to look at what a [Jossverse] vampire is. Of course as
far as mainstream sources are concerned a vampire is a
demon occupying a human body, pure and simple. As
Buffy put it in lie to me 
Well, I've got a news flash for you, braintrust:
that's not how it works. You die, and a demon sets up
shop in your old house, and it walks, and it talks,
and it remembers your life, but it's not you.

I would like to put the opposite perspective: the
vampire is the person, with a few minor changes, and a
demonic flat mate. Furthermore, I would contend that
as far as the evil is concerned it is not the demon
that that you should fear, is it the human.

This contradicts the official information, but where
does this information come from  basically somebody
had an idea that made sense, and they wrote it down.
It is little surprise with sources from religious
backgrounds where the soul was accepted as the seat of
self and of conscience, that the perspective of
soulless vampire, entirely divorced from the host,
would be logical and attractive  I doubt that the
scholars did any scientific research to back their
claims. Additionally the need to dehumanise the
enemy is very strong in a war  the last thing that
the Slayer and the Watchers Council will want to
believe is that the demons that they are slaying,
are people that they are killing (witness Buffys
dislike of being called a killer by Dracula).

So, disposing of normal sources let us more to that
good old scientific standard: observation.

Angel has seen the vampire thing from some different
perspectives, so his observations are quite relevant -
although he doesnt like to talk about it a lot, he
has made a few comments, for instance in BtVS:
Angel:
When you become a vampire the demon takes your body,
but it doesn't get your soul. That's gone! No
conscience, no remorse... It's an easy way to live.
You have no idea what it's like to have done the
things I've done... and to care.
Apart from the soul part, which is inference, not
observation, he has only observed the loss of
conscience/remorse; also, despite what must be
tremendous temptation, he has never denied personal
responsibility for Angeluss actions. He has also made
more explicit comments about the close link between
vampire and human, for instance in BtVS:
Doppelgangland:
Willow: (appalled) It's horrible! That's me as a
vampire? (Angel closes the door) I'm so evil and...
skanky. (aside to Buffy, worried) And I think I'm
kinda gay.
Buffy: (reassuringly) Willow, just remember, a
vampire's personality has nothing to do with the
person it was.
Angel: (without thinking) Well, actually... (gets a
look from Buffy) That's a good point.

At this point it is probably useful to have a
framework for looking at vampire psychology  as this
is just a quick bit of armchair psychology Ill use a
bit of very basic Freud. Just to make sure that were
all on the same wavelength Ill go over the jargon
(strictly my perspective). Freud saw personality
growth as striking a balance between three forces:
Id: the force of basic biological needs and desires (I
like to look at it as the animal within)
Ego: this is the rational, conscious bit (as far as
Freud was concerned the tip of the iceberg)
Superego: the force of conscience, beyond the
rational. (Not conscious, but probably a social
construct; a lot of people are pretty screwed up in
this department)

So if we look at a vampire as a combination of a human
and a demon symbiont (or parasite if you prefer) we
can have look at the changes in these components. It
is common for a parasite to alter the host behaviour
and the changes for vampires are just what you would
expect to convert a human to a ruthless predator (as
required to survive as a vampire). Obviously the
superego is pretty much silenced in becoming a
vampire, and it seems that the ego is pretty much
unchanged, while a few more violent drives are added
to the ids normal complement. This is pretty much
consistent with the demon being no more than an animal
 existing only at the id level and suppressing the
superego. What the vampire does with these drives is
entirely up to the [human] ego.

The two shapes for a vampire can be viewed are
reflecting the inner duality  the human and the demon
beast. The majority of vampires spend most of their
time in the demon form, apparently driven by their id.
The more interesting vampires (and often more
dangerous) spent the majority of their time in human
form  thinking and planning  acting rationally 
ruled by the ego (yes, even Harmony)
[Yes, I know its partly makeup convenience, but it
makes sense as well]

Spike has reconciled his ego with his id entirely  he
says himself that all he is looking for is one good
day, and he is entirely cool with doing good as long
as it fits with his own agenda  even before the chip
he worked hard to save the world because he liked it
the way it was. In other vampires we see another
coping mechanism  in their search for meaning they
identify themselves as evil, and develop [at least an
illusion of] a new, inverted, superego  Angelus and
the Master show the most striking tendencies this way
(looking at a human example: Faith). Dracula is an
extreme example  he appears to have entirely embraced
the demon and become a single entity blending the two.

Back to Spike  the chip introduced a degree of
classic conditioning into the mix Spike is being
gradually conditioned to suppress many of the demonic
elements of his id: hence the gradual shit in his
behaviour. He is however still entirely devoid of
guilt, (giving him, IMHO, a huge advantage in the
sanity stakes, just look at Buffy: her superego is
grossly dominant, and she spends most of her time in
one of other form of Freudian anxiety). When we have
seen a charter as both a human and a vampire is has
been interesting  just look at Willow  her kinda
gay comment proved to be very prophetic, and perhaps
the Evil Willow of season six (living in Australia
Im limited to transcripts so far) is more a result of
Willow struggling to deal with drives that she had no
preparation for (without the internal support of her
morals [Im sure that whatever system she worked by
took a beating over the Tara stuff], and little
external support from her friends and family) rather
than more conventional evil. Whoops, off topic again.

In conclusion from, my perspective (at least up to the
end of season 5), Spike is much the same character he
always was: big bad, not evil.

Digressing slightly I know a lot of people are looking
for a rationalisation of the varying strength of
vampires in the Jossverse: perhaps its a matter of
compatibility, both psychological and physiological 
hence recently revamped Darla is much the same as she
was before despite being younger, and not having been
sired directly by the Master  she is still extremely
compatible. (I know a lot of people like the age of
vampire, combined with age of sire; like Anne Rice
vamps, but this doesnt seem to fit)

Boy can I go on,

CBMoore


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