Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, wrote his book Civilization and its Discontents in 1929. He initially published his book in German in the year 1930, titled as Das Unbehagen in Der Kultur – The Uneasiness in Civilization. Freud book is known as one of the most important and influential books on the subject of psychology (Gay, p. 722). In this study, Freud has explored the conflicts between the expectations of society and the individuals’ desire for individuality.
Freud in this book explains his viewpoint as the fundamental clash between individuality and civilization. He believes that the individual’s pursuit of instinctive freedom and contrary demands of society for compliance with the standards and repression of instincts are the main points of discussion. Freud says that it creates the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment when any circumstances preferred by pleasure principle are prolonged. Many of the primitive instincts human beings do have are in general harmful to the societies. The examples of such instincts are the desire to kill a person in a state of anger, craving for sexual consummation. These instincts fall into the category of those desires that destroy the well-being of society (Gay, p. 722). Civilization is said to have defined rules and laws that discourage killing, rape, and other types of adultery. In case these rules and laws are broken, civilization implements punishment ad penalty. It can be, thus, said that the defined laws restrict the happiness of people in a society. Freud argues that this process in built-in quality of civilization that results in the long-lasting feeling of discontents in the people (Gay, p. 722).
The theme of the book
Freud’s theory is mainly based on the idea that human beings have some fundamental characteristic instincts that are very natural and almost impossible to imitate. In particular, these characteristics include the desire for sex and the tendency to violent aggression aiming at the authority figures and sexual competitors.
Freud believed that religious feeling – the “oceanic feeling” of eternity, limitlessness, and wholeness was overlooked in his previous book, The Future of an Illusion. So he found it suitable to start his work with what was ignored in the last book. Freud mentions that there are many pathological and healthy states, for example, love, where ego and object are likely to have no boundary – lost, distorted or blurred. The writer classifies the oceanic feeling into a state of consciousness in one’s earlier life when it was far before the differentiation of ego from the world of objects. Freud writes that an infant baby’s helplessness and craving for father is what gives rise to the religious feelings, as there is nothing like father’s protection that an infant would need (Strachey, p. 72).
In the second chapter, Freud investigates how religion could be a remedial strategy for to keep the individuals from all the miseries in the world. Upon grasping the negative aspects of associated with the reality, a child’s ego forms far over the oceanic feeling that would prefer to keep itself at a distance from the negative aspects. Ego at the same time hopes to avoid any displeasure and more it goes on developing itself so that it could be better able to secure greater happiness. Freud says that pleasure principle does have twin aims when ego gets to realize that fact that has to deal with the ‘reality’ as well (Strachey, p. 76). Freud, in this chapter, does seem to claim that the purpose of life for individuals is simply a program of pleasure principle (Strachey, p. 76). The rest of this chapter explores many different styles of adaptation that persons keep on to use to secure happiness in their lives while trying to save themselves from exposing to sufferings or completing avoiding it.
In the third chapter Freud while addressing the fundamental paradox of civilization, tells that we have created this as a tool to save ourselves from getting exposed to things that make us unhappy, yet it has become the greatest sources bringing unhappiness in our lives. The frustration that society imposes on people through its cultural ideals makes them neurotics as they cannot tolerate it. Freud went on pointing that advancement in science and technology has given the human a mixed kind of blessing. “If the pleasure principle is not satisfied, then what is the society actually for?” Freud asks. He further says that society must compromise on happiness in respect to meet its fundamental goals by the persons engaged in peaceful relationships. With the combination of wish-fulfillment of human ideas of control, order, hygiene, beauty, and particularly for the exercise the functions of society’s highest intellectuals, civilization is built.
Structure of a civilization represses the natural processes of human development and feelings of eroticism. This way, it is no wonder to believe that this repression is leading discontent among the people in the society (Freud, p. 97).
In 4th chapter, the writer attempted to sum up the history of civilization and how it evolved or developed. Freud supposes that development in the history of civilization occurred with the learning of man to stand upright. This stage is tailed by the writer’s hypothesis that human culture is attributed to an ancient Oedipal drama where two brothers are planning to kill their father, then developing rules that would mediate the instinctual desires.
Continuing the discussion on civilization and what humans go through while living in a culture, Freud says the Psycho-analytic study has very clearly shown us that the frustrations of one’s sexual life that are known as neurotics, do not tend to tolerate. Which in turn make people do unpleasant things (Freud and Strachey, p. 106). With this, the author starts the fifth chapter of his study explaining why love could be considered the answer and concludes it saying that an irreducible and genuinely aggressive drive exists in all human beings. While the instinct of love can be either possessed by society to blind the members out there or repressed. It can well be directed towards other rival culture. He acknowledges that an irremediable ill-will exists in men’s heart and civilization is primarily there to restrict these kinds of impulses.
The writer reviewing libido concept explains why it should be separated now into two different instincts which are, 1. The ego instinct of Thanatos (death) and object instinct of eros. The new concept that Freud introduced has a quite long history. It developed over time in Freud’s history. His view of human nature, being inclined towards destruction and death, as he admits, is difficult to accept, but he gives the reason for this saying that suppression of this instinct is the right cause for civilization to put restrictions. The perpetual struggle between the interpersonal forces of love and hate gave birth to life and civilization (Leary and David, p. 15).
Freud in the seventh chapter explains how the death instinct if restrained can give rise to neurosis in humans. Father, being the main figure, a child’s aggressiveness is suppressed by society overall, and turned inward, and directed against the ego. A super-ego as conscience is, then, developed with these aggressive energies, that rebukes the ego for both transgression and sins that are only fantasized about. Individuals in a society should submit themselves in order to form the feelings of guilt and repress their aggressive instincts if they want to hope to share in love that a civilized society has assumed for its people. Both neurotic repression and guilt are the price that we pay to enjoy living together with harmony in communities and families.
Freud, in the final section of his study, says that guilty conscience is the cost which individuals pay to become a part of a civilized society but very often this guilt is left unconscious causes to experience anxiety and discontent. Apart from individual super-ego, Freud believes that there exists a cultural super-ego as well which sets up itself as the conscience for a society. Freud’s recommendation for this is the same as he suggested for many other of his neurotic patient – lowering the demands on frail ego. Freud concluded the book by making a clear distinction between the two instincts he mentioned, Eros and Thanatos. By repressing an instinctual tendency its libidinal components could be turned into symptoms and the aggressive components of that instinct could be turned into a sense of guilt (Strachey, p. 139).
The study of Freud needs to be taken in the context of contemporary events in the world. If we pay careful attention we can see that the World War I had greatly influenced Freud’s observation and directed it to the unrest occurring among people in those days. The civilization and individuals were going through a massive tension. Freud in those days developed thoughts in a nation not yet recovered from a brutal war. Freud, being avowed atheist, stressed that it is religion that has created a sense of community with tamed social instincts. This way religion is helping civilization (Kennedy and Fehim, p. 18).
Work Cited
Strachey, James. “Civilization and its Discontents.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953-74) 21 (1961): 70.
Kennedy, Nilgün Fehim. “Civilization and Its Discontents. Sigmund Freud.” (2016).
Freud, Sigmund. “Civilizations and its discontents.” Library of Congress, 1961.
Leary, David E. “CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS.” (1992).
