The Physicalist Worldview as Neurotic Ego-Defense Mechanism

Abstract

The physicalist worldview is often portrayed as a dispassionate interpretation of reality motivated purely by observable facts. In this article, ideas of both depth and social psychology are used to show that this portrayal may not be accurate. Physicalism-whether it ultimately turns out to be philosophically correct or not-is hypothesized to be partly motivated by the neurotic endeavor to project onto the world attributes that help one avoid confronting unacknowledged aspects of one's own inner life. Moreover, contrary to what most people assume, physicalism creates an opportunity for the intellectual elites who develop and promote it to maintain a sense of meaning in their own lives through fluid compensation. However, because this compensatory strategy does not apply to a large segment of society, it creates a schism-with corresponding tensions-that may help explain the contemporary conflict between neo-atheism and religious belief.

An encounter with the self: A thematic and content analysis of the DMT experience from a naturalistic field study

“…Nevertheless, such metaphysically intense experiences may simultaneously be the driver of subsequent challenges, which often include ontological shock (mystical: Michael, 2022b ; entity: Davis et al, 2020a ; NDE: Pratte, 2021 ). For example, though small, one percent (26 respondents) of Davis et al's ( 2020a ) DMT users endorsed that the experience provoked an “undesirable alteration in their conception of reality”, and some arguments suggest that materialism is a coping mechanism to defend against disturbing aspects of one's self and world (Kastrup, 2016 ), which if undermined may actually be deleterious.…”

Postmaterial Participatory Research: Exploring the nature of self with children

“…The aim of the article is to argue for the value of participatory methodologies in research with children, which aims to privilege their knowledges/epistemologies and living experiences in relation to the nature of self. Researching self with children raises questions about the mainstream materialist paradigm which holds hegemony (Kastrup, 2016) over most academic disciplines, including phenomenological and qualitative research (Lather & St Pierre, 2013), -and importantly, over the life worlds of everyday people. Children's experiences of self, others and the world challenge the dominant materialist paradigm, which provides the rationale for why I pay attention to other models of reality that may offer more explanatory power than materialism (Albhari, 2019;Shani & Keppler, 2015;Kastrup, 2018Kastrup, , 2019.…”