Freud Civilization Its Discontents 1930 1930 Sigmund Freud

Freud – Civilization & Its Discontents (1930) 1930

Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) • Here to “agitate the sleep of mankind” • Founder of Psychoanalysis • Theory of the Mind – How it is structured and how it (mal)functions • Topography • Interpretation of Dreams, Slips of Tongue, Neurosis/Psychosis • Theories of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ sexual development • Talk Therapy Technique • “Patients make the best teachers” Theories about the relationship between individuals and their societies

Big Picture Objectives • What is the essence of human nature? • What is the relationship between individuals and society? • What is happiness? • What is the source of suffering and discontent? • Can we be happy and free? • Individually? • Collectively?

Book I Key Concepts • Oceanic Feeling • Topography of the Mind • Id • Ego • Superego • Pleasure Principle • Reality Principle

Book I cont. Key Themes & Arguments • Feelings of limitlessness/oneness • Boundary between internal/individual & external/outside world • Process/Development of Individual from Infant to Maturity • From pure pleasure principle and unbounded ego to reality principle and boundaries • Or NOT – ongoing need for protection/preservation/pleasure Religion as attempt to relieve the trauma of existence

Book II The Possibility of Happiness • Sources of Suffering • Our Own Bodies • Physical External Nature • Relations with Other People

• “…what decides the purpose of life is simply the programme of the pleasure principle…and yet its programme is at loggerheads with the whole world…There is no possibility at all of its being carried through; all the regulations of the universe run counter to it. One feels inclined to say that the intention that man (sic) should be ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of ‘Creation. ’

Book II cont. Life is too hard for us – How (can? ) we bear it? ? • Isolation – avoid the (external) sources of misery • Join the Human Community – attempt to master natural misery • Substitute Satisfactions – diminish the misery • Intoxication – numb the misery

Book II cont. • The “most interesting”… Attempt to influence ourselves • Defense Mechanisms • Repression • Sublimation of libido Art, Science, Intellectual Pursuits Fantasy, Wish Fulfillment Refuse/Reimagine the World (Religion) i. e. , ‘delusions’ Live on Love and Being Loved Live Aesthetically NB: footnote 5 re: work – NOPE

Book II cont. The Catch? None of these “convulse our physical being. ” Many are not available to many people Can be dangerous themselves When these sublimated compensations fail – enter Neurosis/Psychosis

Book III Social Sources of Suffering Main Thesis of Text: “…what we call our civilization is largely responsible for our misery…” AND “…it is a certain fact that all the things with which we seek to protect ourselves against the threats that emanate from the sources of suffering are part of that very civilization”

Book III cont. • Useful Science & Technology • “Useless” Art & Beauty • Order & Cleanliness • Intellectual Activities • We are ever closer to being god-like – And still discontent

Book III cont. • “The replacement of the power of the individual by the power of a community constitutes the decisive step of civilization. The essence of it lies in the fact that the members of the community restrict themselves in their possibilities of satisfaction, whereas the individual knew no such restrictions…. ” • “The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. ” Punchline: Society Requires Sublimation

Book III cont. So…? ? ? “It does not seem as though any influence could induce a man to change his nature into a termite’s. No doubt he will always defend his claim to individual liberty against the will of the group. A good part of the struggles of mankind center round the single task of finding an expedient accommodation – one, that is, that will bring happiness – between this claim of the individual and the cultural claims of the group; and one of the problems that touches the fate of humanity is whether such an accommodation can be reached by means of some particular form of civilization or whether this conflict is irreconcilable. ”

Book IV (Don’t pay too much mind to F’s armchair anthropology & hopeless misogyny) Key Points • Eros – love instinct (desire is better translation) Acts as a binding force Singular/sexual & Collective/Aim-inhibited (friendship/affection) Punchline: Society restricts/represses sexual Eros in name of stability NB: Footnote 7 – F. contends that humans are bisexual and non-monogamous by nature

Book V • Civilization requires mass binding • Cooperation in work, culture, knowledge • “Love thy neighbor” • WHY? HOW? Is this Possible? ? • Nothing is more counter to human nature • Enter – Aggression

Book V cont. “…men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a result, their neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity to work without compensation, to use him sexually without consent, to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus. ”

Book V cont. SO…? ? ? In addition to Eros, humans are naturally aggressive Primal mutual paring/bonding and hostility Punchline: Society is always potentially going to disintegrate Both sexual and aggressive instincts must constantly be repressed Hence – The DISCONTENT Though – Are We Not in Some Sense Better Off in General? ? ?

Book V cont. Slight Detour Through The Communist Counter “The communists believe that they have found the path to deliverance from our evils. According to them, man is wholly good and is well-disposed to his neighbor; but the institution of private property has corrupted his nature…if private property were abolished, all wealth held in common, and everyone allowed to share in the enjoyment of it, ill-will and hostility would disappear among men. ”

Book V cont. Freud Counters the Counter “…I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system (Communism) is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression one of its instruments, certainly a strong one, though certainly not the strongest; be we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its nature. Aggressiveness was not created by property. ”

Book VI • “And now…the meaning of the evolution of civilization is no longer obscure to us. It must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of, and the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life of the human species. And its this battle of the giants that our nurse-maids try to appease with their lullaby about Heaven. ”

Book VII • Aggression directed externally: Fatal Impediment to Civilization SO… • Aggression re-directed internally: Enter SUPEREGO to torment ego

Book VIII cont. How to Curb Instinctual Aggression and Secure Society Internalization – Render aggression innocuous by policing ourselves “Like a Garrison in a Conquered City” Develop a guilty (‘sinful, ’ ‘bad’) conscience Develop an internal desire/need for punishment Deeds AND Intentions Punchline: You Can’t Hide From Yourself – Permanent Internal Unhappiness

Book VIII “…the sense of guilt [is] the most important problem in the development of civilization…the price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt”

Book VIII cont. “The fateful question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent their cultural development will succeed in mastering the disturbance of their communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction. It may be that in this respect precisely the present time deserves special interest. Men have gained control over the forces of nature to such an extent that with their help they would have no difficulty in exterminating one another to the last man. They know this, and hence comes a large part of their current unrest, their unhappiness and their mood of anxiety. And now it is to be expected that the other of the two ‘Heavenly Powers, eternal Eros, will make an effort to assert himself in the struggle with his equally mortal adversary. But who can foresee with what success and with what result? ”