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A review by mg2023
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
2.0
This book brushes through several themes that revolve around one question: how will civilisation overcome the discontents aroused by communal life? Freud carefully constructs a simple yet potent argument by asking a series of questions and pondering over their responses. It is almost a conversation.
What do people seek? - Happiness.
How can people be happy? - By satisfying their drives.
What are their drives? - Eros (a complex concept that can be translated as lust or urge to procreate) and aggression (an urge to destroy).
Why can't people satisfy their drives? - Because its bad for survival.
So what must people do? - Suppress their drives.
How can people suppress their drives? - Install an authority.
What does an authority that suppresses basic drives do? - Create aggression and anxiety.
How can this be overcome? - By internalising the aggression.
What does internalising aggression cause? - The creation of a super-ego, i.e. conscience.
Does conscience help? - No. It causes further anxiety and aggression due to the creation of the feeling of guilt.
How can guilt be overcome? - By realising that this whole scheme, society and our conception of human nature is flawed and needs to be recognised and reconciled.
Freud thus treats society as if it's a neurotic patient and tries to uncover what its subconscious ills are. He merely uncovers his own bias. In an attempt to provide an alternative spectrum of reality that can replace religion and culture, Freud falls into the misfortune of dwelling in delusional imagination which he masks as psychoanalysis and science. Reading the book, I felt nothing but pity towards the poor man. Thinking that Freud's influenced so many people in their thinking makes me even sadder because it is clear that such an immature explanation of human nature and such lack of purpose and reason can only cause further anxieties as it has in the materialist, consumerist and self-absorbed societies of today.
What do people seek? - Happiness.
How can people be happy? - By satisfying their drives.
What are their drives? - Eros (a complex concept that can be translated as lust or urge to procreate) and aggression (an urge to destroy).
Why can't people satisfy their drives? - Because its bad for survival.
So what must people do? - Suppress their drives.
How can people suppress their drives? - Install an authority.
What does an authority that suppresses basic drives do? - Create aggression and anxiety.
How can this be overcome? - By internalising the aggression.
What does internalising aggression cause? - The creation of a super-ego, i.e. conscience.
Does conscience help? - No. It causes further anxiety and aggression due to the creation of the feeling of guilt.
How can guilt be overcome? - By realising that this whole scheme, society and our conception of human nature is flawed and needs to be recognised and reconciled.
Freud thus treats society as if it's a neurotic patient and tries to uncover what its subconscious ills are. He merely uncovers his own bias. In an attempt to provide an alternative spectrum of reality that can replace religion and culture, Freud falls into the misfortune of dwelling in delusional imagination which he masks as psychoanalysis and science. Reading the book, I felt nothing but pity towards the poor man. Thinking that Freud's influenced so many people in their thinking makes me even sadder because it is clear that such an immature explanation of human nature and such lack of purpose and reason can only cause further anxieties as it has in the materialist, consumerist and self-absorbed societies of today.