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I think that Freud's theories can be applied to the Buffyverse to understand what it means to become a vampire. For those who don't know, Freud theorizes the existence of a Super-ego (our moral sense), an Id (our impulses and passions) and an Ego [thread]
The Ego is what has to make decisions taking in the external world, along with the opposing dynamic between Id and Super-ego. Freud states that the Ego is slave of three masters: the external world, the Id and the Super-ego. IMO becoming a vampire means losing the Super-ego -
reverting de facto to childhood. However, it doesn't mean that the hidden desires of the Id, newly let loose, are the same for everyone. Angel's frustration as a human stems from him being fundamentally inept, thus as a vampire he craves power.
What Spike craves the most is love. He wouldn't change anything about his life if he could just be loved by the one woman he loves. Does he crave dominance too? Of course, to some degree he does. But as he says in an episode, most vampires -
- don't want the world to be destroyed. To me, the reason why Angel does is that he loathed the world in his life already because he couldn't find any fulfillment in it. When he becomes a vampire, the moral human barriers fall and he gives into his most secret desire.
Spike's destructive behaviours are much more chaotic. He doesn't want the world to end, he just wants it to give him the respect and recognition that he didn't have in his human life, thus explaining him continuously risking death to face the slayers.
