Intimacy and Its Discontents | An Essay On Evangelion's Human Instrumentality Project

The Hedgehog's Dilemma tells us that the paradox of human intimacy lies at the heart of Evangelion. But how does this relate to the confusing Human Instrumentality Project, on the one hand, and Shinji's depression, on the other hand? On first glance, the two seems opposed to each other. The former wants to unite all souls into one while the latter wants to be radically alone. Another problem is how do we theorise and connect all of this with Evangelion's overt references to concepts from philosophy, psychoanalysis and theology?Are they merely pretentious?

I think we cannot do away with these difficult theories. At the same time, however, I think we must avoid the common pitfalls of interpreting Human Instrumentality. It is clear that it is definitely not a conspiracy theory, as Alex Jones would have it. Neither is it a religious prophecy or the Gospel of the Next Century. Neither is it simply a euphemism for suicide.

Instead, I think that Human Instrumentality is the realisation of all of our desires. My wager is thus that truth of depression is none other than the Human Instrumentality Project. They are just different sides of the same coin. Different solutions to the same problem: the hedgehog's dilemma. Gendo and SEELE tried to annihilate the gap with the Other by making all of us One. Shinji tried to run away from the Other widen the gap through total isolation. And yet, both of their outcomes are the same: pure nothingness.
That is why to Shinji's great astonishment in The End of Evangelion, Rei tells him that: "This is the World You Wished For." Therefore, what is the solution to the hedgehog's dilemma? Well, ask Frank Sinatra. ;)

▬ Chapters ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Introduction 0:00
The Hedgehog's Dilemma 4:05
The Pleasure Principle 5:35
Introjection & The Oral Stage 7:50
Cathexis 11:14
Nagisa Kaworu, AT Field, libido and Eros 11:28
The Compulsion-to-Repeat 16:55
The Drive or Trieb 20:09
Komm, Süsser Tod 22:40
Ayanami Rei, destrudo, Thanatos and the Death Drive 28:24
The Primordial One is Nothing 30:10
Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom 32:30
The Sickness Unto Death 34:53
Self-Image or Ego 37:25
'Me'-Recognition is always a Misrecognition 39:38
The other or Other? 42:34
The Split Subject: The Self That is Seen and the Self Observing That 46:50
Jouissance 49:37
The 'Real' You, or the Freudian It 52:18
The Symbol or Signifier That is Me! 53:15
Symbolic Castration: By Piloting the Eva, I Can Be Me 55:37
Entry Plug: 'An Empty Vessel For A Soul' 55:36
僕は僕だ! Iʼm Me! Saussurean Differentiality or Hegelian Determinate Negation 1:01:00
The Hollow in Our Hearts: objet petit a 1:04:53
'Love is Destructive' 1:07:36

Rest of the chapters, including the conclusion, can be found here:    • "This is the World You Wished For" | ...  .

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Hey there, this project is finally completed after a year of re-writing and editing more than a dozen scripts and video drafts. Sadly, I am still unable to escape YouTube's flawed copyright system. The original video is about 1 hour 40 minutes long which includes the concluding chapter which is around 30 minutes. YouTube has copyright blocked this part, hence forcing me to remove it completely.

Please check the following links below:
Full 1h 40 min Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uaFG...

You can read my essay in PDF here as I have made formatted it into a book for an enjoyable reading experience and referencing purposes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YS0X....

CREDITS:
All Music and Soundtracks can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gl-R....
Complete citations are in the pdf of my essay but you can still ask me in the comments for specific ones :)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Massive thanks to my friends Mahmood, Weeab and Nezakki. They were kind enough to check on my progress and encouraged me to not give up. Without them I would have lost confidence in myself. *sigh why do we always criticise ourselves so much today? This is definitely the Freudian superego at work! Also thanks to Vuv and my sister for listening to my ramblings and frustrations. Even if they do not understand what I'm talking about, our discussions helped me organise my thoughts. And lastly, thanks to you guys on both YouTube and Instagram for supporting my works since the beginning. This video is for you and thank you for waiting for more than a year! I hope it's not too difficult though, but I'm positive that Evangelion fans are passionate enough about philosophy and psychoanalysis. Feel free to ask me questions in the comments section!

Further acknowledgement, I owe my understanding of Hegelian dialectics to Maximilian Kostka's video. His visual animations made it easier to understand the dialectic:    • Hegels Dialektik erklärt nach Slavoj ...  .


#evangelion #neongenesisevangelion #theendofevangelion