Sigmund Freud Civilization And Its Discontent Essay

Human rationality has been brought into question as wars, in past centuries, have reached magnitudes never experienced before. The Enlightenment (18th century), which occurred in Europe, expanded scientific and philosophical thought shaping the way one interprets the world, society and science today. Its impact has been tremendous, clear through its influence in the industrialization of the globe, as it has engendered various forms of technological advancements utilized within the work and economic sphere; especially within contemporary society. In the philosophical writing, “Civilization and its Discontents”, Sigmund Freud (father of psychology), uses this enlightenment-like thinking process, to uncover the reality of human purpose, instinct,

A civilization in simple words is a community which is non-primal (or savage), clearly this can be deduced from Freud’s writing as he compares discontentment within civilization versus discontent, which is arguably non existent, within what he refers to as a “primal family” (73). Hence, one could assume that a civilization is an advanced community (with laws and some sort of hierarchy). In light of, Freud exposing that “primal [families]” (...) “[enjoy] this instinctual freedom” (73), ergo, allowing them to be happy. Moreover, from a more elaborate view-point a civilization is “a cultural community consisting of double individuals like this, who, libidinally satisfied in themselves, are connected with one another through the bonds of common work and common interests” (65). Through this detail of a civilization, one could allude to the idea that by civilization perhaps Freud is also referring to a nation-state. As the definition for it, refers to a governmental body with citizens who share a common identity/connection. Having explained Freud’s assessment of civilization, it is clear as to how discontentment affects the entirety of a civilization as they are “connected”. As previously mentioned, the arousal of this discontentment is all related the subconscious, and conscious, oppression of instinctual