OT: Spike, Freud and Vampires

[C A Moore <cab_moore@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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

Spike?s 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 Watcher?s Council will want to
believe is that the ?demons? that they are slaying,
are people that they are killing (witness Buffy?s
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 doesn?t 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 Angelus?s 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 I?ll use a
bit of very basic Freud. Just to make sure that we?re
all on the same wavelength I?ll 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 id?s 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 it?s 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
I?m 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 [I?m 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 doesn?t seem to fit)

Boy can I go on,

CBMoore


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