Dowling College: PHL 002: Sigmund Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)

Sigmund Freud

Freud’s Theory of the Mind

Freud held that the mind has three main parts. He changed his mind over his lifetime about how best to label and categorize these parts, but for our purposes the changes in his views are not very significant.

Translation of Freud’s Name	Psychological Term	Latin Name	German Name	What is in it
The Over-I	Conscience	Superego	Uber-Ich	Rules of Society’s Morality
The I	Consciousness	Ego	Ich	Conscious thoughts, ideas, images (including dreams)
The It	Unconscious	Id	Est	Unacceptable desires, disgusting and dirty instincts

The desires in our unconscious are unacceptable to us, and so our minds repress them. This means that the desires are pushed down, out of sight. This sort of repression is healthy, according to Freud.

We can not normally be aware of our unconscious desires. But the Unconscious does influence our thoughts and behavior, even if we do not notice it doing so. It affects our dreams: the unconscious desires are never directly expressed, but they do appear in our consciousness in disguised form. In order to understand what desires our dreams express, we have to interpret them. Freud’s greatest work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) sets out his theory about how to do this, and what our dreams tell us. Unconscious desires can affect our dreams because we are more off-guard in our sleep, and so repression does not work so well in our sleep.

Psychoanalytic theory says children have strong sexual feelings and fantasies -- these are caused by a sexual or creative instinct, (which he sometimes calls 'Eros'). Many of our psychological problems are caused by our difficulty in acknowledging and owning up to our sexual feelings. Many of our desires, feelings and memories are deeply submerged in the Unconscious.

Psychoanalysts believe that it is very hard for one to know his or her unconscious mind, but sometimes it is possible through a process of psychoanalysis, which involves going to a psychoanalyst four or five times a week for about an hour each time, and saying whatever comes into one's mind. Eventually one's unconscious thoughts and desires may come to the surface.

Sometimes our mechanisms of repression do not function correctly, and our unconscious desires affect our waking thoughts and behavior too. Sometimes our unconscious desires are expressed in our slips of the tongue (Freudian slips) or in our jokes. Freud thought that unconscious desires or memories affecting people’s minds and bodies caused many cases of mental illness. These were cases of neurosis or hysteria. They include phobias, obsessions, compulsions, sexual fetishes, hysterical paralyses, hysterical blindness, hysterical pregnancy, and depression. Freud thought that often a person could be cured by a process of psychoanalysis, through which the unconscious ideas that were causing the patient’s illness would be eventually made conscious, and thereby would end the patient’s dysfunctional symptoms.

Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)

Freud's views have always been controversial and influential. His most important works were published between 1900 and 1939. This piece is from one of his last books, Civilization and Its Discontents, written in 1930. While Freud was writing this, he was living in his home town of Vienna, Austria, while Hitler was gaining power in Germany and Fascism was becoming more threatening. Freud and his family, who were Jewish, had always been subject to anti-Semitism, but it got much worse in the years that were to lead to the second World War.

In this book, Freud explicitly argues that humankind is nasty and violent. He cites many instances of terrible inhumanity and violence, and suggests that the only reasonable explanation is that it is part of our nature to be violent: this is what he calls "the inclination toward aggression." What instances of inhumanity does Freud provide?

Section II. Freud suggests that humans were not meant to be happy.

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be ‘happy’ is not included in the plan of ‘Creation’. What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon. When any situation that is desired by the pleasure principle is prolonged, it only produces a feeling of mild contentment. (Norton edition, p. 23) But Freud points out that it is much easier to feel unhappy. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. (Norton edition, p. 24) Freud catalogues the ways in which humans try to achieve happiness. He is especially eloquent when he writes about love. He points out that some people try to make love the center of their lives. But, he goes on, The weak side of this technique of living is easy to see; otherwise no human being would have thought of abandoning this path to happiness for any other. It is that we are never so defenceless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love. (Norton edition, p. 29) Section III: Freud considers the suggestion made by others that humans would be much happier if they abandoned civilized life, and returned to an primitive existence. He does not think that this idea makes much sense. He clearly admires the achievements of human civilization. Furthermore, although he is pessimistic about the possibility of achieving a utopian society in which everyone is happy, he does believe that some societies are happier than others are, and that there are things we can do in a civilized society to make it better. If we cannot remove all suffering, we can remove some, and we can mitigate some: the experience of many thousands of years has convinced us of that. (SPT, p. 309) The marks of civilization, according to Freud, are beauty, cleanliness and order. (310). But especially important is the esteem and encouragement of our higher mental activities -- intellectual, scientific, and artistic achievements. These include religion, philosophy, and ethics. These different threads that make up civilization are closely interwoven. Finally, Freud points out that a civilization requires a political system of justice, which will prevent individuals simply doing whatever they want. (311).

Freud echoes the social contract theorists when he says that people give up some freedom as they create civilization. He echoes the ideas of John Stuart Mill when he writes, "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." (312).

Freud goes beyond previous theorists when he says that it necessary for civilization that our instincts be sublimated. This means not just that we do not act on our primitive instincts, but also that the energy of these drives is taken and diverted to be used for higher purposes. This is a major feature of Freud’s account of civilization, and one that he thinks requires careful consideration.

It is not easy to understand how it can become possible to deprive an instinct of satisfaction. Nor is doing so without danger. If the loss is not compensated for economically, one can be certain that serious order will ensue. (312). This quotation introduces that idea that civilization is dangerous to one’s mental health. When Freud talks about "economic compensation" he is not referring to money. He is referring to the psychic economy, which is the interplay between the different parts of the mind. To put it crudely, he is saying that if one dams up one’s instinctual energies without finding some release for them, they will eventually explode or find release in some unacceptable or unwelcome form.

Section IV. Freud asks how civilization came to be psychologically possible. He is interested in the history of humankind, and speculates about the life of "primal man." (313). An important development was coming to be able to find satisfaction in ways other than sex, because love relationships are so uncertain. People who do this

... avoid the uncertainties and disappointments of genital love by turning away from its sexual aims and transforming the instinct into an impulse with an inhibited aim. What they bring about in themselves in this way is a state of evenly suspended, steadfast, affectionate feeling, which has little external resemblance any more to the stormy agitations of genital love, from which it is nevertheless derived. (314). These people experience a more general, less intense yet still satisfying non-sexual love for their fellow humans. This is what makes friendship possible. It is at this point that Freud makes some of his most glaringly sexist comments. He writes: Women represent the interests of the family and of sexual life. The work of civilization has become increasingly the business of men, it confronts them with ever more difficult tasks and compels them to carry out instinctual sublimations of which women are little capable. (315). Women remain at the mercy of their primitive drives because they are not capable of controlling them! For this reason, they start to resent civilization, which makes men less interested in sex and families, and more interested in religion, philosophy, ethics, and politics. [It is worth noting that although Freud was certainly sexist in his writing, he was also ready to acknowledge the intelligence of many women, including his own daughter, Anna, and many of the first psychoanalysts, who where women that he himself trained.]

Having said this, Freud goes on to make some of his most liberal comments. He acknowledges that it is necessary for a civilized society to have some restrictions on people’s sexual behavior for its own good: for example, he says that we should curb children’s sexual behavior, because if we don’t, they will grow up to be unable to control their own sexual behavior. He goes on, though, to say that society goes much too far in putting restrictions on people’s sex lives. Society disapproves of homosexuality, perversions, sex outside of marriage, and polygamy. He says in doing this, society "cuts off a fair number [of people] from sexual enjoyment, and so becomes the source of serious injustice." (316)

Indeed, modern Christian society goes so far as to tell us to like or love everyone else. Freud thinks that this is both unreasonable and psychologically impossible.

Not merely is this stranger in general unworthy of my love; I must honestly confess that he has more claim to my hostility and even my hatred. (317). It is this observation that leads Freud to his most distinctive claim in this book. His main point is that human violence does not occur simply because of misunderstanding between people, or because people are badly brought up. Rather, he thinks we have a deep drive and desire for violence, and we use any opportunity to satisfy our (often unconscious) thirst for violence.

According to Freud, Eros is not the only instinct. He thinks that we have a Death instinct (or "death drive") as well. discusses the problems of proving his view and distinguishing between the dual instincts of Eros and Death. On his view, we have a 'drive' or 'instinct' for violence, comparable to our need for sex.

As evidence for this claim, he points to the history of human life. He sees a huge amount of violence and destruction. He believes the reason that society puts so many restrictions on sexuality is that it is trying to take sexual energy and convert it (sublimate it) to a more general love for humans, which can then help counteract our destructive drives. But he thinks that these efforts to counteract our violent tendencies have had very little success.

It is at this stage in his argument that Freud explains why he thinks that the hopes of Communists to solve the problems of humankind are doomed to failure. On his understanding of Communism, the basic assumption is that it is private property that is the ultimate cause of human misery, since it leads to humans exploiting each other. But, he says,

Aggressiveness was not created by property. It reigned almost without limit in primitive times, when property was still very scanty, and it already shows itself in the nursery almost before property has given up its primal, anal form; it forms the basis of every relation of affection and love among people (with the single exception, perhaps, of the mother’s relation to her male child). (318). So if we abolish private property, Freud thinks that humans will simply find some alternative excuse to release their aggressive tendencies on each other. This is very characteristic of Freud’s approach: while people may give all sorts of sophisticated justifications for using violence on each other, he thinks that really these justifications are no more than smoke screens to disguise what is really going on, which is that they are motivated by a primal drive for death and destruction.

In civilized society we try to curb these internal drives, and this generally makes it hard for us to be happy. But even in primitive society, it was only the head of a family who ever was able to give expression to all his instincts: "the rest lived in slavish suppression." (319).

Section VI. Freud summarizes some of his discussion to this point, and relates it to his experience as an psychoanalyst with patients with sadistic tendencies. He ends the section with an eloquent passage.

And now, I think, the meaning of the evolution of civilization is no longer obscure to us. It must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instincts of life and the instincts 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 it is this battle of the giants that our nurse-maids try to appease with their lullaby about Heaven. (322) It is here that we start to see Freud’s more explicit criticisms of religion.

Section VII. Freud points out that animals do not show the same struggle as humans. So it would be incorrect to call the human drives "animal instincts." It is not clear to Freud why animals lack the destructiveness of humans, and he comments that this is still something to be examined.

As he has already noted, one approach to reducing human destructiveness is to tell people to be moral. He explains that this proceeds in two stages; first, children are threatened with punishment if they behave badly. This is a direct form of control, playing on their simple fear of loss of love. But eventually children internalize the moral rules that they have learned, and their conscience, or super-ego will make them suffer if they do something wrong, without any external force having to do any more work. A feeling of guilt can be very unpleasant. "The super-ego torments the sinful ego with the same feeling of anxiety and is on the watch for opportunities of getting it punished by the external world." (323). He goes on to make a curious observation, if true.

For the more virtuous a man is, the more severe and distrustful is [the conscience’s] behavior, so that ultimately it is precisely those people who have carried saintliness furthest who reproach themselves with the worst sinfulness. Thus the more civilized a society is, the more its members will suffer from guilt and anxiety, or to use Freud’s phrase, "permanent internal unhappiness." (324.) Human happiness is incompatible with civilized life. The development of the morality of society as a whole is parallel to the development of morality in an individual.

Freud draws a conclusion from his ideas, concerning ethics. Basically he seems to be very skeptical about the whole idea of living ethically, especially the code of Christian ethics. He says that the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself is impossible to fulfill. He says, "such an enormous inflation of love can only lower it value," and later in the same paragraph he says that this sort of ethics has "nothing to offer here except the narcissistic satisfaction of being able to think oneself better than others. (SPT, p. 327)

At the end of this book, Freud does not make any predictions about what will come of humankind. He clearly recognizes (and this was well before the invention of nuclear weapons) that humans have the capability to destroy the whole species. This will cause humans further 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 immortal adversary. But who can foresee with what success and with what result? (328).