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POPSSicknesses Unto Death: extreme and ordinary madness <<<And in the middle of the spectrum lies the grand majority of society's normal, those whom Kierkegaard calls the "philistines." The philistines are those whom one observer calls the "normal neurotics," whom Freud considered repressed by their psyches for their own good because they are not capable of too much reality. They are easily duped by the powerful to do their bidding in relative silence, to pursue their pleasures in stupefying doses, to contribute to society, that great edifice of somnolence and enslavement about which Nietzsche railed. The philistines walk about in "fictitious health," says Kierkegaard, alluding to their contentment with conventional norms, tastes, and values.>>>