Sports on the Couch

Ricardo A. Rubinstein

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781782204329
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429919435
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Bringing together concepts from psychoanalysis with an attentive eye and the author's popular wisdom, Sports on the Couch explores the psychology of athletes and those around them. As a product of our culture, sport enables a break for our minds, since it allows us to disconnect from internal as well as external realities. We immerse ourselves in the world of play, managing to let out tensions and liberate a great deal of aggression in a socially acceptable way.

CHAPTER ONE
Culture and sport

There is a very direct relationship between culture and sport, since we can fully consider the latter as a cultural product. It essentially constitutes an entertainment, a pastime. Whether we manage to evade ourselves or whether sport functions like a painkiller or substitute of the affronts and hardships of everyday life, it helps us to feel better, even if only momentarily.

Going back to the origin of sport, it is said that “… in remote communities, a relaxed way of breaking away from routine consisted in attending and, on occasion, participating in games and dances. Protagonists and spectators jointly participated in the pleasure and magic of the movements” (Montalbán, 1972, p. 1). This magic has stretched to our times; we plunge for a while into a different world where our attachment to everyday rules is temporarily disrupted by the pleasure/displeasure stemming from the game. Sport thus constitutes a break that provides our psyche with a kind of “moratorium” from the tasks that link it not only to external reality but, to a certain extent, the conflicts of an inner reality.

Sport as entertainment or pastime

Similarly, the function of other spectacles, like cinema, theatre, concerts or musical shows, dances, and other non-sportive games (cards, for example), is to distance us, even if momentarily, from everyday reality. An immersion takes place into another world, another reality, the one proposed by the game, the spectacle, where what predominates is the quest for pleasure. This is also achieved because less energy is put into the repression of impulses that are usually restrained. For the athlete as well as the spectator, it is like an escape valve is opened for the release of instinctive reactions (mainly aggression) that result in a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure. The participant, by identification with the drama or epic that takes place in the game, acquires a more real character, whether due to opposition (rivals of the moment) or camaraderie (own team members).

Those who have been to a stadium or watched a football game in a bar with fans from other teams will have witnessed how atmospheres are gradually built up and that the liberating effect of discharged emotions is produced (in the form of football chants, for example) when goals are scored or a team suffers; when opponents mock each other or insult the referee.

Sport from an evolutionary perspective

Sport derives from activities that in prehistoric times were survival tactics. It is very probable that man started running to avoid being eaten by wild animals; that he learned to throw stones, spears or javelins to hunt and obtain food; to swim when he needed to cross rivers. Whether it was to seek food or to protect oneself from the threats of the environment, it became necessary not only to be able to run, swim and hunt but also to fight, climb and fish. For this reason a period of training must have preceded in order to achieve these goals. The acquisition of such skills benefited a person in the fight for survival and gave them advantages over the less fit. In this context, games would have been associated with competition with other men, and rules would have appeared that were accepted by the group. This constituted a further step in evolution.

We can observe how muscles acquire an erogenous quality in individual development. We define “erogeneity” as the excitability of certain parts of the body, which arouse pleasure when stimulated. Not only the oral, anal and urethro-genital mucosal surfaces are capable of producing pleasure, but the whole body can acquire this quality. Relying on functions like eating food, which serves for self-preservation, the mouth and lips will begin to associate a “plus of pleasure” to the biological satisfaction (Freud, 1905d, p. 182). I believe that something similar occurs with muscular function.

Being able to explore the surrounding environment and gradually appropriate oneself thanks to the exercise of muscular power is a source of pleasure for the body and satisfies one’s own ego. Just as it occurs in phylogeny, the abilities and skills achieved by the use of the body and muscles will reinforce, in individual development, the pleasure deriving from that skill. This is more evident in athletes, since it provides them, as well, with a more valued representation of themselves. In this way, muscles provide a source of double pleasure. The subject is captive of the function it exerts over their values and ideals. We can observe, therefore, that in the mind of athletes there exists a double psychological reinforcement for their ego, which we call narcissistic charge: in the first place, the erotisation of the parts of the body involved, and second the charge resulting from other people’s regard of them as “other”— gifted with special skills and abilities.

To summarise, sport derives from activities that played a fundamental role in the survival of the species. Abilities and skills were acquired that could give a person advantages over those who were less fit. This condition became inscribed as a peculiar feature and quality within that community, giving it, as a result, a social value as things were done in this unique way.

Particularly during adolescence and early youth, the social value of those who possess physical skill remains in force. Especially in school and university spheres, young people that excel in certain sports are recognised, admired or envied by their peers and can become the object of sexual desire.

Sport as the release of aggression

Culture requires from its genesis tremendous renunciation on the part of human beings. “The free expression of sexual and aggressive desires is restrained to permit coexistence and community life. Nevertheless, this renunciation will have its costs under the guise of a certain amount of ‘cultural discontent’ always present” (Freud, 1930a). The sexual as well as the aggressive will pulsate and find other socially accepted ways of manifesting. Certain celebrations and orgiastic rituals indulge the erotic, whereas “aggression will be, to a great extent, introjected, internalized and directed against the ego, acting under the form of moral conscience or superego” (ibid., p. 123).

Thus culture interferes as one of the most powerful obstacles to the aggressive tendencies of human beings. A transaction, therefore, is necessary by means of which part of that thwarted aggressiveness can be liberated, in a controlled manner, permitting satisfaction from what is ordinarily prohibited: the desire to kill and destructive motions. This is precisely the role sport plays in our culture. “The pleasure that it gives would be enhanced since it involves one of the grossest instinctive satisfactions, those which affect our bodiliness (together with cannibalism and incest)” (Freud, 1927c, pp. 10–11, Freud’s emphasis). Sport is an activity with a strong bodily commitment. Muscles can be used as a means of releasing tensions of the psychic apparatus and, jointly, as a means of liberating sadism and destructiveness from the subject.

The majority of actions carried out during sport are part of the most direct or primitive exercise of aggression, including hitting, kicking, and throwing (except in the case of chess, where it’s more symbolic). In the same vein, we could conclude that culture resorts to sport to control its warlike tendencies. Journalism frequently makes comparisons between games and battles. The inherent, instinctive sublimation to the game situation is broken to bring forth the direct instinctive discharge, the pitched battle, the war, whether it’s between the protagonists or among the spectators (regardless of the emblem, group or country they represent), who identify with the drama that is unfolding.

We participate in these wrangles simply because the prospect of experiencing the joy of success and the euphoria of triumph are within the reach of everyone. We only need to identify with the team and/or individual protagonists in order to join the fray and be part of the celebration (or suffering).

Authoritarian leaders have exploited this, giving strong encouragement to sport in order to unite the masses paradoxically behind ideals that involve military aggression. Mass media can operate in a similar way by distancing critical thinking and reflection, thus dominating and keeping vast sectors of society passive.

Sport as representative of peoples, countries, or regions

There are ways of playing sport that reveal a person’s idiosyncrasies; their ways of being and feeling, their tastes, values, ideals, and their particular ways of expressing themselves. Through them feelings of national and social identity are manifested.

Sports can be played according to the characteristic style of each nation or region. And they are learned from childhood, in places like schools, clubs or the neighbourhood where games are shared. An example is the more physical football played by Europeans and the more technical version played by South Americans. Further examples can be noted in the “Spanish fury” associated with bullfighting; the “champagne rugby” characteristic of the French; the haka of New Zealanders; the style of chess played by the Russians; Cuban and American baseball; Kenyan athletics; French and Belgian cycling; and Argentine polo.

The anthropologist Eduardo Archetti further illustrates this phenomenon in his book Masculinidades, fútbol, tango y polo en la Argentina (2003). He highlights that “… the more successful players are perceived as models and mirrors of their country; they are representatives, examples of national virtues and qualities. In Argentina, football is taken as a model or mirror of identity. Argentines feel proud because their players perform well and are admired in Europe. I understand this as the eyes of a ‘relevant other’, which create marks of identification” (p. 103).

The author also presents the gambeta (a kind of dodge manoeuvre in football) as a typical product of the type of football played in the River Plate. This word comes from the literature of the gaucho and describes a way of running that is characteristic of the ostrich. “The gambeta is a product of the local kid, differentiating him from the way the English played, whose style didn’t leave room for improvisation, imagination or creativity”. In this way, the gambeta became “a product for popular export”; indeed, a product of high quality (ibid, p. 102). This playing style goes hand in hand with freshness and with childhood: “… the authentic Argentine player is the kid, who will never stop being a child; he will be somebody with an exuberant ability, astuteness, creativity, individualism, artistic sensitivity, vulnerability and improvisation. He will also be untidy, his conduct will be chaotic and he will overlook limits” (ibid., pp. 243–252). Thus football allows the adult to continue playing and being a child, Maradona being the prime example. Archetti adds: “Kids played spontaneously in the paddocks, without instructors, as opposed to English schools. In the paddocks, with so many players in such a limited place, the only way of keeping the ball was with the gambeta” (ibid., pp. 243–253). The technical ability and individualism of the Argentine football player stands in contrast to the image of the disciplined British (or European) player more oriented towards the group.

With regards to Brazilian football, it is similar to the physical activities and dances such as the samba or capoeira (a martial art of African origin). This is rooted in the collective imagination and identity of the Brazilian people. This identification establishes important cultural differences with Europeans because, for example, the existence and development of European football styles are not related to either music or dance.

In Cuba, baseball is associated with the musical genre and dance known as the “danzón”, an antecedent of salsa. It was conceived in opposition to the bullfighting folklore during the struggle for independence from Spain and is part of the patriotic and anti-Spanish ideology. It was later adopted and adapted by workers and immigrants. From its origins, it was a ritual associated with dance. Each baseball game concluded with a magnificent dinner dance and on these occasions orchestras were hired that played “danzones”. Baseball was perceived as a modern and democratic game that enabled young players from modest backgrounds to experience social mobility, as with football in Argentina and Brazil.

Before international matches, the haka is performed by the All Blacks, the national rugby team of New Zealand. It is a Maori tribal dance, which traditionally served as an ancestral war cry, although now it is used on occasions as an expression of hospitality. A performance where hands, feet, legs, body, tongue and eyes all play an important role, the haka is a message from the Maori people’s soul. These movements and facial expressions are used to give more strength and energy to the words. Moreover they serve a double purpose: to achieve cohesion among the team members and to scare the opponents.

We see in almost all sports practices body movements, dances, and rhythms, which remind us of the origins of a sport. Vázquez Montalbán mentions that “… according to early anthropological evidence, sport originated in relation to games and dance, although it appears from its beginnings as a substitute for conflict and competition” (1972, pp. 1–2). “Each primitive community linked its dances and games with religious rites, but sporting activities also had a lot to do with the history of spectacle. Attending and participating in games was a relaxing way of breaking away from routine. Moreover, even though dances and games were symbolic expressions personified by the players, participation also included those who attended these events, subjugated, in turn, by the magic of the useless movements” (1972, prologue, p. 1).

Games were from their origins a shared creation; events whose real sense lay in the shared enjoyment of both players and spectators. The theory of value, as always, depended on the uniqueness of the protagonist: the greater the skill, the greater the enchantment on the part of the spectator and more valued the performance. The community, captivated by the magic of well-performed exercises, as well as by the role of medium played by the priest with the divinities, demonstrated by its acceptance and demand of sportive displays that these events served as compensation for their own exclusion. Sporting heroes, therefore, also became mediums, just like the priests, between the community and the quest for triumph and perfection.

It is interesting to bring together these events with the concepts of identification and identity, since they allow us to understand the meaning and effects such events unleash in the participants or spectators, a mixture of sportive combativeness and ritual.

The concept of identification in psychoanalysis refers to a type of bond; it constitutes the most primitive way of relating to someone else. The individual who experiences it isn’t really aware of how this occurs, since it’s an unconscious process, but it will produce lasting changes in the subject. Thanks to identification we can put ourselves in someone else’s place and understand better another person’s conduct and way of thinking.

Over the course of his or her evolution, learning, maturity and experiences consolidate the individual. Identifications will produce changes in the person that will make him or her modify behaviour patterns and representations of him- or herself. These identifications will also make the individual merge with or feel similar to the representations or internal images of those who gave origin to them, usually the people emotionally significant for the subject.

Throughout their maturity, individuals will experience primary identifications, formative of their psychic organisation (parents, family), and secondary identifications (peer groups, country, ideologies, vocational choices), which will contribute to provide a person with a feeling of self. This feeling, in turn, may change with time, according to the circumstances that the individual goes through (crises, mourning, migrations, etc.).

This feeling of identity (self) will allow the subject to recognise him- or herself and be recognised by others. In other words, this feeling of self is a result of the set of identifications deposited in the ego. And it’s not a static phenomenon but something mobile and changing. In this context, the national quality is something that is constructed by a set of habits, ways of being and common language; by sharing experiences and events, by the feeling of an “us”.

Styles derive from this; they are a combination of ways of thinking and acting, characteristic of an area, region, nation, or country. Styles begin to gel, so to speak, through historical, social and cultural events that are adopted and eventually become part of the cultural heritage of a nation. All inhabitants feel identified, to a greater or lesser extent, with these common factors, because they represent something about their inner selves. And this is what happens with styles in sports, inasmuch as they appeal to those aspects that become part of a national identity.

We may ask ourselves why national anthems are played at the beginning of sports events and what effect this produces. Evidently, what is sought is to strike an emotional chord, to touch upon a sense of national identity, and thus bring together athletes and spectators. Players unite in an “us” that doesn’t accept faltering or betrayal; spectators also feel that part of themselves is at stake and so the crowd gains strength, vibration, and a different intensity.

Dissemination on a broad scale

For the last twenty years we have observed the spread of all kinds of sports activities and events all over the world. The question is why this is so. A great part of the answer is related to sociological factors, but other factors are also believed to have intervened: health education, mass media, the era of “the perfect image” and, finally, politics.

Doctors are important health agents, not only due to their therapeutic role but also for their preventive function as advisers of healthy lifestyles. From the considerations of hygienists regarding healthy lifestyle habits sprang the recommendation of body care and exercise, which in turn has been transferred to different specialists. This information spreads from academia to symposiums, congresses, and papers and studies in specialist magazines.

Doctors, from their places of authority, and in possession of a specialist knowledge, have in our time a significant impact on patients regarding physical activity, whether it’s related to losing weight, improving cardiovascular performance, or keeping the body in an aesthetically acceptable form to the patient. The clinical notion of suggesting movement and physical activity as a therapeutic agent is widely consolidated nowadays. From a sociological perspective, one element distinguishes itself with the modern and urban culture of the past thirty years.

The old habit of resting, getting together and chatting on weekends has radically changed. It’s not exactly by resting that peopl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• FOREWORD
• PROLOGUE
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER ONE Culture and sport
• CHAPTER TWO Movement
• CHAPTER THREE Play
• CHAPTER FOUR Competition
• CHAPTER FIVE Transference
• CHAPTER SIX Pressures
• CHAPTER SEVEN Ideals
• CHAPTER EIGHT Injuries
• FURTHER READING
• REFERENCES
• INDEX