Difference Between Freud And Rousseau

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Freud and Rousseau Freud’s two stages for the ego’s development are the internal and external ego. At first humans start off as the id. The id operates on what it wants and is not self-aware, so if it wants the breast, it will scream until it gets it. The first stage of the ego is self-awareness, but it only recognizes its own wants. The next stage of the ego is the separation between what is ours and what is not, and develops in the toddler years. At first the toddler operates on the pleasure principle, and the ego allows the child to obtain anything that gives him pleasure. The reality principle, however, interferes with the pleasure principle because it makes the ego realize that he cannot always get what pleasures him all the time. …show more content…

Freud proposed that we have to constantly suppress our instincts, and he lists three ways we can do so. The first, powerful deflections, “…to make light of our misery…” such as participating in science. Secondly, substitutive satisfactions such as making art and sublimating our desire for sex into that art. Lastly, we can use intoxicating substances like drugs to make us insensitive to our instincts (Freud, 41). Rousseau, however, says the civil state transforms, “…him from a stupid, limited animal into an intelligent being and a man” (Rousseau, 27). This means that once we enter into the social contract we completely leave behind our instincts and replace them with morals and justice. I believe that individuals can be happy for short periods of time in society. For example, we do not have to constantly fight for our possessions because we have rights, and security makes us happy. Rousseau would agree with this because he says, “What he [man] gains [from the social contract] is civil liberty and the proprietary ownership of all he possesses” (Rousseau, 27). Unfortunately, security cannot make us happy at all times because it is not usually at the forefront of our mind. It leaves us with a sense of contentedness, and we, normally, only realize the happiness security gave us when we lose

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