ABSTRACT
The capacity to blank oneself out and inwardly vanish is a form of self-protection widespread in human life. In human existence this elemental capacity is raised to a new power. In a sense, Sigmund Freud's work can be read as a meditation on mind's encounter with its own apparent mindlessness, a "mindful mindlessness." His concepts of repression, dissociation, and decathexis deal with gaps, splits, or ruptures in mental functioning. Whatever the status of Freud's concept of psychic energy, decathexis, death drive, and his mythic-mechanistic metapsychology, the psychological realities he points to are crucial. Perhaps the most formidable of all defenses that Freud describes is decathexis, a withdrawal of energy from or loss of interest in others. Whereas Saint Paul knew that human nature was given to sin, Freud knew it was immersed in madness. Although selflessness and mindlessness cannot be equated, there is much to be gained by studying one in relation to the other.
