Freud believed that tension continually exists between civilization and the individual. Civilization curbs the individual from pursuing his or her basic instincts as an animal would pursue. There is an irony here in that humans, in trying to pursue happiness, in building or creating a civilization or society, are actually making themselves unhappy with all the rules and regulations enforced or imposed on them. We are not aware of our repressed feelings unless undergoing psychoanalysis according to Freud. Based on Freud’s belief, society needs to take some responsibility for someone like Manson’s failure to conform. Society, as well as his family, let him down with abuses that Freud would directly blame. Manson’s mother abandoned him, and the state institutions did not protect him or …show more content…
In turn, we have also hurt our planet with our inventions in ways that no other species can take responsibility for. Our minds have created the best and the worst on our planet. In terms of biology, as humans, Freud believes our aim is self- preservation through the reality principle. Animals are more biologically rigid in their behavior and determination. It is interesting to note that Darwin, on the other hand, believed that humans are just one species of animal and that our nature is deterministic and responds to the environment. Freud differs in that he distinguishes humans by our ability for knowledge, to think rationally, and to investigate or analyze or psychoanalyze why people do what they do. For example, steal, murder, write a song, etc. It is Freud who can explain what went wrong with Manson and his mind. Freud stated that humans are driven by their unconscious drives and instincts, which include aggression and sex. This would be true of the animal kingdom as well. However, all humans have an unconscious wish for death, or a death instinct. Self-destructive behavior comes out of the death drive. Aggression and violence is when the death instinct is
It can perhaps be inferred from the title that Freud’s work will have a languished tone. When describing the workings of civilization, Freud chooses words with negative connotations, such as “restriction” and “perversion” (Freud 49, 59). He ends the work by bleakly asking “may we not be justified that under the influence of cultural urges…possibly the whole of mankind—have become neurotic?” (Freud 110). He sees no feasible solution to the conflicts between human tendencies and civilization. In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi outlook is despondent and fatalistic. His anecdotes focus solely on the horrible experiences he and his fellow prisoners must endure at the work camp. This tone changes, however, once he begins to form relationships with other men in the camp; he becomes focused on survival and abandons the forlorn tone to focus on survival. As Auschwitz is abandoned and the prisoners left are striving to survive, he recounts that he gave everyone nasal drops of camphorated oil “for pure propaganda purposes…I assured Sertelet that they would help him; I even tried to convince myself” (Levi 168). Instead of wallowing in their state as Sigmund Freud does, Primo Levi looks for ways to be optimistic and instill hope in his
Next, Freud discusses man's instinct for war and violence. He says that there are two kinds of human instincts: "those that conserve and unify... `erotic'...or `sexual'...and, secondly, the instincts to destroy and kill." He calls these instincts "Love and Hate." (Freud, 25) I did not, while reading this view, wholeheartedly agree to this until I got to paragraph 30, where I felt the second part of this idea led. Freud clearly and ingeniously states that man is divided into the leaders and led. Therefore, the led (the majority) depend on the leaders to guide them, bowing to their every command, while the leaders (politicians and the Church) make all of the decisions. This has been so since the dawn of man, I believe, yet it has never been clearer to me until reading it in Freud's words.
“Civilization and Its Discontents” is a book written by Sigmund Freud in 1929 (originally titled “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur” or The Uneasiness in Culture.) This is considered to be one of Freud’s most important and widely read works. In this book, Freud explains his perspective by enumerating what he sees as fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He asserts that this tension stems from the individual’s quest for freedom and non-conformity and civilization’s quest for uniformity and instinctual repression. Most of humankind’s primitive instincts are clearly destructive to the health and well-being of a human community (such as the desire to kill.) As a direct result, civilization creates laws designed to prohibit killing, rape, and adultery, and has severe consequences for those that break these laws. Freud argues that this process is an inherent quality of civilization that instills perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens. This theory is based on the idea that humans have characteristic instincts that are immutable. The most notable of these are the desires for sex, and the predisposition to violent aggression towards authoritative figures as well as sexual competitors. Both of these obstruct the gratification of a person’s instincts. Freud also believes that humans are governed by the pleasure principle, and that they will do whatever satisfies or pleasures them. He also believes that fulfilling these instincts satisfies the pleasure principle.
Even in the early twentieth century, Freud was able to not only diagnose the “illness” of the society that he lived in, but was also brilliant in stating that civilization pays no attention to the happiness of the individual. This quote also demonstrates that an individual who believes that there is more “merit” in obeying rules that are hard to follow are actually at a disadvantage in contrast to those around him/her who may disregard those precepts. Overall, the two thinker’s analytical texts impact our perception of morality, even with our different modern values.
According to Sigmund Freud, what we do and why we do it, who we are
In his documentary, A Century of the Self: Happiness Machines, Adam Curtis illustrates that Sigmund Freud had developed a new theory that human beings cannot be trusted with what they wanted. In other words, he believed that people must always be controlled. With the idea that they know what the nation is thinking, those in power used Freuds theory to help keep individuals within their limits. Additionally, if they do not command, individuals and communities will be discontented, which would lead to chaos and destruction. Moreover, Curtis maintained that Edward Bernays, who was Freuds nephew was the first to put his theory to practice. Bernays argued that manipulation was necessary in a democratic society and throughout the documentary, it
Freud originally attempted to explain the workings of the mind in terms of physiology and neurology ...(but)... quite early on in his treatment of patients with neurological disorders, Freud realised that symptoms which had no organic or bodily basis could imitate the real thing and that they were as real for the patient as if they had been neurologically caused. So he began to search for psychological explanations of these symptoms and ways of treating them.
In explaining human behaviour, both approaches make assumptions to simplify human behaviour in terms of their own principles and beliefs. The biological approach believes on the nature side of the debate. The biological functions that are thought to influence our behaviour are set at the point of birth by the action of genes. The changes in our biology as we grow will have a corresponding effect on our behaviour. The psychoanalytic approach, on the other hand favours the nurture side of the debate. The only thing a child is born with, according to Freud, is an id which has a very healthy libido and further parts of the personality develop as the child interacts with the environment (including parents) until all the parts have developed and are functioning in a healthy
Sigmund Freud once said: “Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility”. Humans are by nature selfish and cruel, but conceal their inner desires and act in ways accepted by society. When all traces of civil society disappear, humans are prone to express their nature to it’s fullest and act impulsively, unless they possess a strong enough conscience to override it. According to Sigmund Freud, this impulsiveness, it’s opposing force of reason and the combination of the two represent the three main aspects of human nature, commonly referred to
Freud believed that we are dominated by biological needs, especially sexual, that must be controlled if we are to become civilized human beings. In his view, our perpetual struggle to tame these impulses leads to the emotional conflicts that shape our personality. According to his Psychoanalytic Theory, personality is shaped by an ongoing conflict between peoples primary drives, particularly sex and aggression and the social pressures of civilized society. Also early childhood experience plays a major role in molding personality.
Freud believed that human nature is basically deterministic, and largely dependent on the unconscious mind. Irrational forces and unconscious motivations drive the human mind to a unique conduct and performance. Freud believed the choices we make are determined by biological and instinctual drives. The purposes of instincts are for survival and aggression. In the field of psychiatry, Freud founded his type of psychoanalytic therapy on curing mental illnesses. The basis for Freud’s work on treating mental patients was on an illness called hysteria. One popular case that Freud began the majority of his work on was the Anna O. case. She suffered many symptoms from repressed ideas that were outwardly from no physical cause. Repression is a way of excluding unconscious desires, wishes, or unpleasant memories into the conscious mind by holding them in the unconscious mind. “According to Freud, repressed ideas often retained their power and were later expressed without the patient's awareness of them. Through ps...
Freud believed that a human must go through certain stages in their lives or they will not socially develop to their full extent. He also made claims that a human is always struggling between their human, and instinctual nature. This was a very controversial topic because Freud concluded there was a lack of individuality of the human race. If Freud’s theory was the case then humans would have less of a choice in their life, and are truly slaves to their instinctual nature. While an intelligent figure of his time, I believe that Freud went in the wrong direction when approaching his theory. While humans do have a large amount of urges that he described, the person themselves can choose what to do based not solely on society, but their wants and needs as well. Had Freud been alive today I’m sure that his theory would have theorized much different things about the human nature. I think it is important to analyze the distinct cultural setting behi...
“Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.
In Sigmund Freud's observation, humans are mainly ambitious by sexual and aggressive instincts, and search for boundless enjoyment of all needs. However, the continuous pursuit of gratification driven by the identification, or unconscious, directly conflicts with our society as the uncontrolled happiness. Sigmund Freud believed that inherent sexual and aggressive power prevented from being expressed would cause our "society to be miserable and the forfeiture of contentment." Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality theory is based on the perception that greatly of human behavior is determi...
Throughout Freud’s time, he came up with many different theories. One of his theories was Life and Death Instincts. This theory evolved throughout his life and work. He believed that these drives were responsible for much of behavior. He eventually came to believe that these life instincts alone couldn’t explain all human behavior. Freud then determined that all instincts fall into one of 2 major classes: the life instincts or the death instincts. Life instincts deal with basic survival, reproduction, and pleasure. Death instincts are apparent after people experience a traumatic event and they often reenact the experience. In Freud’s view, self-destructive behavior is an expression of the energy that is created by the death instincts.