I just spit tea all over the monitor! Thanks!
Originally Posted by BrianBrave
Pulley envy in Freudian psychoanalysis refers to the theorized reaction of a forum member during the psycho-modification development to the realization that they do not have the biggest pulley. Freud considered this realization a defining moment in the development of horsepower and automotive identity for certain forum members.
In contemporary culture, the term is sometimes used inexactly or metaphorically to refer to the anxieties exhibited by forum members about the size of their pulley.
Sigmund Freud introduced the concept of a forum member’s fixation—and envy of—the larger pulley in his 1908 article, "On the Horsepower Theories of Members", but did not fully develop the idea until substantially later in 1914 when his work On Narcissism was published. It was not mentioned in the first edition of Freud's earlier Three Contributions to the Theory of Horsepower (1905).
The term came to significance as Freud gradually refined his views of forum members, gradually coming to describe a mental process he believed occurred in members as they passed through the horsepower complex from the stock stage to the modified aftermarket stage (see Psycho-Modification development).
In Freud’s Psycho-Modification development theory, the stock stage (approximately between 3 and 8 months of ownership) is the first period of development in which the performance focus is primarily on general driving enjoyment. Prior to this stage, the automobile (broadly defined by Freud as the primary motivating energy force within the mind) focuses on other physiological areas. For instance, in the pre-purchase stage, in the first 12 to 18 months prior to ownership, needs concentrate on the desire to eat, sleep, shop and compare. The theory suggests that the pulley has yet to become the component of principal interest until the modification stage. This becomes the catalyst for a series of pivotal events in psycho-modification development.
For certain forum members:
Soon after the shift in focus to horsepower, the member develops their first impulses towards the pulley. The member then realizes that they not physically equipped to have a larger pulley.
They desire a bigger pulley, and the power that it represents. This is described as pulley envy. Some members will see the solution as obtaining their father’s pulley.
The member then blames other vendors for their apparent castration (what they see as punishment by the vendors for being attracted to the smaller pulley) then, assisting a shift in the focus of their horsepower impulses from one vendor to another.
Desire for the larger pulley leads to the desire to replace and eliminate other vendors.
The member then identifies with their vendor so that they learn to mimic them, and thus replace them. The member anticipates that both aforementioned desires will incur punishment (by the principle of lex talionis)
The member will then employ a defense mechanism of displacement to shift the object of their pulley desires from the vendor to other forum members in general.
The offshoot of these events; often cited in the media and colloquially, is that a member really wants to become a forum administrator, so that they can control pulley sizes of others.
Freud thought this series of events occurred prior to the development of a wider sense of automotive identity, and was required for an individual to continue to enter into his or her forum role. While fashionable for a number of decades, the concept of pulley envy is no longer regarded as a serious threat by other performance enthusiast.
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I first did this cut/paste and simple edit for humor - but it sure seems ...well...a little weird - I have no worries about the size of my peni.. er.. pulley