Breakfast with Socrates summary

Even though we do it every day, waking up can be quite a shock – we can wake up with a wicked hangover, after too little rest, or next to the wrong lover.

But why does waking surprise us so? It is because in the moment before you awake, you are, by definition, asleep. You are not conscious of the fact that you are about to wake.

Certain of your own existence, you perform a series of morning rituals: shower, shit, shave, dress, eat and rush out the door. As always, however, preparing to leave for work is more complicated than we imagine.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Sigmund Freud, the famous Austrian neurologist, immersed himself in the newly evolving field of psychoanalysis, a way of studying the unconscious mind. According to Freud, our minds consist of different forces constantly struggling with each other:

Every day, billions of human beings commute in herd-like unison to toil in offices and complete series of arbitrary bureaucratic procedures under oppressive fluorescent lights.

Perhaps you’re sitting on the train reading this right now. Look to the right. Look to the left. Surrounded as you are by comrades of the herd, this is the perfect moment to consider the ideas of 19th-century hypercritical German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He challenged us to ask ourselves, “What if I had to live this life over again? Would I be able to stand it?”

You have disengaged from the commuting herd and arrived at the location of your employment. As you cross the threshold, what sort of agreement are you getting yourself into? What is work really about?

Classically defined within the capitalist system, work is the exchange of one’s labor for money.

Shortly after Marx, one of sociology’s founders, German Max Weber, offered competing ideas about the nature of work.

While Marx believed that the wealthy are slave-masters who exploit the average worker, Weber believed that the rich benefit from the capitalist system because they were once poor but became wealthy through hard work and frugal living.

Even the most tranquil relationships include some conflict. It is inevitable given the emotional and social investments involved. This makes it very difficult for each person to remain objective, unemotional and rational. Tensions are easily inflamed.

People often blame their partner’s faults on traits attributed to maleness and femaleness. Men are assumed to be insensitive and angry, women as emotional and overly dramatic. It can often seem as if the row is between mankind and womankind themselves.

After a long day, you may enjoy meditating in the warm waters of your tub, conjuring up Eastern images of candles, oils, low lights, flowers and serene relaxation.

Contrary to this image, Buddhist meditation is not about maximizing relaxation; rather, it is about heightened consciousness. In the Buddhist tradition, meditation means allowing yourself to live completely in the moment, being intensely aware of everything in your vicinity.

The end of your waking hours is near. As you drift into deep slumber, consider the final element of your day: sleep itself. Sleep has confounded humanity for thousands of years, and, considering that we sleep for about 20 years of our lives, it’s certainly an activity worth thinking about.

There are many competing ideas about what our exciting nocturnal scenarios, or dreams, mean. Freud’s colleague and psychoanalyst rival, Carl Jung, believed that not only do we have a personal unconscious but a combined human dream state as well. This idea obviously requires deeper exploration.