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: https://youtu.be/_OxV4OipxsE.
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/1uaFGaAwjSmG49crXlX6puEmlAwbdx1wn/view?usp=sharing
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/1YS0XY1ktnSnRSN9pj4Tsy9psYzMYrJwO/view?usp=sharing.
CREDITS:
All Music and Soundtracks can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gl-RW_LepD2ehC5TXI24rwMfAnriDuTz/view?usp=share_link.
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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh_KE4VwPDk&t=506s.
#evangelion #neongenesisevangelion #theendofevangelion
source
Hey everyone! The wait is finally over! I am still unable to escape YouTube's copyright system D:: so please watch the remaining clips on the following links:
Conclusion part: https://youtu.be/_OxV4OipxsE
Full Untrimmed Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uaFGaAwjSmG49crXlX6puEmlAwbdx1wn/view?usp=drivesdk
Script in PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YS0XY1ktnSnRSN9pj4Tsy9psYzMYrJwO/view?usp=drivesdk
Sorry for the inconvenience but after trying out several options for the past 2 days, this is the only way. I will not be doing anymore of such long-ass videos any time soon. it's very exhausting so I will just do small and silly reviews from time to time. I will be resuming my studies. Thanks for the support and don't hesitate to discuss down below!!
[Edit 14/12/2022] YouTube decides to block my video due to copyright music but won't let me know which company issued the claim as it is still "hidden by the meta database". The only solution, thankfully they have it, is to mute the music while still keeping my narration. Some of it doesn't work like in 32:30–35:00 all of the audio has been removed by YT. I'm really sorry for this so please turn on the subtitles!
The amount of details is commendable. Proud of my boy
Welcome back Kiwic, I always wanted to hear an Eva piece from you and my wish is now complete, thank you
This essay answered a lot of the questions I had about ‘The Human Instrumentality Project’.
It seems I am not intelligent or smart enough to grasp many of Evangelion it’s aspects, so I’m happy people dissect the things I have trouble understanding.
Thank you for your efforts, I appreciate it.
Nice! I love theory and psychoanalysis. Also, I’m a native Hebrew speaker so feel free to ask if you need help
WOW
Muy bueno, amigo. Saludos desde Argentina🇦🇷
That was fascinating. Thank you. I’m glad you mentioned Hegel as well. I think he’s essential for a complete understanding of Eva.
OWOWOW HEY!!
WHAT A AWESOME VIDEO ESSAY!!!
+1
This and After The Flood's "Understanding Evangelion, or The Gospel of a New Century" are by far the two greatest video essay on youtube and it's so criminal that you two don't have at least a million views.
Extremely well made I can see how much time u put into this
Another thing that ties into Sigmeund Freud Is how Shinji's mother is notoriously absent and is the key aspect of his evangelion,and hell even Rei herself. Yet his only parent who is present,his father,he absolutely despises. Playing even more into the idea of the odipus complex,while the mother is the first object of affection,the father is the first object of hatred.🫠
Mother is the first Other… Some always try to find one who can mimic that first Other…
This is one of my favorite Evangelion videos on YouTube. It's interesting and discusses many things that other Eva videos don't.
Amazing work, thanks for this. Loved what i learned
What a ride! Gonna be rewatching this for a long time. So much to think and learn. Thank you! Cheers from Brazil!
I've been consuming Eva fan content for almost 20 years. One of the things I love about this franchise so much is that just when I think I've surely heard every original and/or well-expressed interpretation, I find something new and compelling. This video was probably the single best analysis of Eva I've ever experienced. The full 1hr40mins flew by. As much as I love the show, I've always suspected that its meaningful connection to the thinkers it references was a little overhyped by the fandom. Now, I think that connection may actually be undersold by the fandom. My next viewing is going to be so rich thanks to this context, thank you!
When it comes to the entire Freudian view, I wonder how much being bottle fed instead of breast fed has an impact on the entire starting point of the psychological process since while the bottle is a surrogate and still gives nutrition, pleasure, suckling etc, it’s clearly lacking the warmth, humanity etc. i was fed with a bottle myself, and I think I’m actually a pretty warm person, most of my negative emotions face internally and i would say most ppl think I’m empathic and nice/wArm, but I have to wonder if there’s an inauthenticity to that? Maybe Freud is just wrong about everything of course but if not, then there’s surely something to the surrogate breast
Honestly as a Christian watching this video, this has been a fear of mine when looking on to a "paradisaic" future. It's both a fear and a test for God. A test on whether or not he wants to bring us to a hellscape disguised as a paradise, or a higher plain of existence in which we escape out of the Cyclical (rather than Progressive) nature of the subhumans that we currently are.
I've analyzed a lot of Freudian thought, and usually compared it with people like Soren Kierkegaard or Carl Jung, which is why I never really gave much thought to Freud's Views. Issue is, two things. 1.) I have never actually read a philosophy book, by any of these people, and instead I've mostly just watched videos about them. And while I could argue that I've been quite busy, that's not really an excuse, because now I have income and can finally use my money to buy these books. 2.) I have never even heard of people like Hegel. Although he did look familiar. And honestly views on "the it" and how both Kierkegaard and Hegel viewed the fall of man in the garden of Eden while not being foreign to me, I never really put figured out why Evangelion contained a large criticism of the paradisaic future. Up until now. And its almost as if I knew it all along.
Your video literally laid out this entire criticism within Evangelion. According to people like Hegel and (I forgot what his name was. Lanan? I forgot) returning to paradise would be both a return to nothingness and a fulfillment of each of our desires. And it would also be a hellscape because escaping death would mean despair because it is the absence of end and the over abundance of life.
This has proved to be very challenging for me. Evangelion changed my life for better or for worse in my opinion. It made me ask crucial questions about God and religion as a whole. And for a while philosophy and these questions made me depressed and even scared to a certain degree when it comes to God and a paradisaic future. However over time I heard input from my own religion, and wisdom from particular people like Jordan Peterson or Carl Jung (although the former is a person I like a lot less, even considering Christian thought). And from this I could hear theories and beliefs by people like Sigmund Freud, Frederick Niche, and many others when it came to there dislike and even hatred of religion and not really feel affected by it. Because what's ironic is that a lot of what they teach is actually what Christianity itself teaches, especially in Niches case. So I am unsurprised that when hearing this I am not only not as alarmed as 16 year old me would be had I heard this straight after I watched Evangelion, but also that I still have heavy faith and belief in being both a Christian and faith, belief, and love for God. These two things cannot be broken as far as I'm concerned. But issue is, this is the one thing I've been struggling with when it comes to religion. It has to do with the relationship that God and we have with Lies, Pain, and death. And honestly inspire of the fact that lying is both bad and wrong I do not believe that honesty should be forced through a future in which if you sin once after the thousand years then you are deserving of death. In fact it is in my belief that if paradise we're to play out like it would the Human Perfection Project, then it would be a betrayal of God himself. But it would also contradict the Bible itself and the wisdom that it holds. The Bible teaches us that anywhere can be paradise, just as Evangelion teaches, so this is not a simply original idea that Evangelion created. The Bible also teaches us to face reality and make the best out of it by teaching the principles to live a fulfilling life no matter what circumstances we are under.
So to give us a future in which pain, suffering, and death are swallowed up forever whether it is like the human perfection project or not would not only contradict the Bible but might render it meaningless.
However I have faith that it won't happen. Instead, I have faith that us entering into perfection would mean that we would become prime humans instead of Subhumans as we are now. But even then there still lingers an ever going fear and concern not for the fact that we will be going into paradise, but a concern that a world without pain, suffering, and death would be an absolute nightmare. That's why when people ask me what I look forward to the most when it comes to that future is me actually being able to speak to God, rather than not being able to die or feel pain or be sick again. I want to discuss literally everything you've laid out in this video to God himself. Not only because we have faith, but because Philosophy is simply theories based on truth, not truth itself. And while I do believe a lot of what people like Hegel and Kierkegaard say about the fact that we cannot (or rather should not) return to the garden of Eden, I also understand that our human understanding of reality itself and the universe is still quite limited, so I don't think we should commit to saying that this would absolutely be what paradise would be like. This is also why I'm willing to give a being with near infinite knowledge the benefit of the doubt, ergo God himself.
What a privilege it is to witness something as perfect as the work you have presented. Putting Eva aside, such a thorough and pertinent essay has the power to inflict change and leave a non negligible impact on an inquiring listener. Bravo.
Nice essay!
I have had similar thoughts and feelings but not so clearly that i could name them.
Thaks fore the video, realy helped put toghether some of my thoughts little better.
Its that first shot…
the long draw.
Oh boy, I'm coming back to see you later.
Amazing work!!!!
One of the best analysis I've seen so far… It's really important for me because I'm trying to fight depression and melancholy, I'm currently fighting with PTSD as well as other things inside my head, I'm also in a relationship that feels… Like nothing. I have to thank you so much for this, not only this was interesting, but also really helpful to understand myself and to find the key to help me out of the cage. I just subscribed to your channel, I wish to see your next projects. Thank you very much, and take care!
Great job!
This is great high quality video
Another long ass Evangelion video on the something that others Evangelion videos talk about. Just how many of these videos YouTube needs? It the same thing, same characters, same anno personal issues etc… All the crap you see was not plan out from the start. Why not make a video about how unstable, selfish and mean spirited that fans are behind this overrated anime. Why not talk about characters nobody talk about like side characters like kensuke and toji. How they were misused then threw away like nothing by Eva staff. Why not make videos like that?
What a good quote to start the video with
alguien sabe alguna forma de poder verlo con subtiulos al esañol?
Well done. An essay worthy of Anno. I especially admire your use of the show's score. Congrats.
My man, the audio got cut off
So by the titty I was made and by the titty I shall fall.
So it shall be.
Edit: 30:48 Which is why nothing is so amazing. And it is on this entire principle I for some reason believe this entire universe is founded on: The potential of of nothing or rather, existence's ability to sprout from it. But it's like a shadow of the real thing. Nothing can compare to it. No creation, no god, however almighty can possible equal this state of absolute perfection.
This is the best piece of eva content ever made. I imagine anno watching this just going “yup. yup.”
This should be read on universities.
You were spot on about evangelion giving a path to end depression. In my darkest moment I always come back to it somehow. This time it was on this essay. And let me tell you that even when I got mostly 8/10 on all my psychoanalysis classes, I knew that most of the time I was just "improvising" my answers to fit the exam but in reality I didn't fully understand it. You put everything so clearly that I think this whole video should be a must to fully understand Freud, Lacan and also Evangelion as a whole.
Thanks a lot for making this