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Utopia as a social model
Summary of sigmund freud's theory in depth essay
The strengths of sigmund freud's theory
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The human psyche is divided into rational and irrational drives. Courtesy of Sigmund Freud, it is divided into the id, ego, and super-ego. According to Freud, although the super-ego controls the other two to present ourselves in a rational state within society, the id often tends to be out of complete control by the conscious, making it an unconscious action. For Freud, it’s the recognition that the irrational is there, that it must be controlled to take over. Man’s aggressive nature does tend to overpower the mind, leading to irrational actions. Both Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents and Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground show how humans are controlled by their irrational drives and that, as a result, the attempts to create a utopian society are futile. To take a different view of the irrational actions in humans, a cinematic frame of reference was introduced, Joss Whedon’s sci-fi film, Serenity tells of a civilization that has become controlled by aggressive groups, the Alliance and the Reavers. Both factions take the form of an antagonistic society, maintaining a sense in fear in all those who go against or stand in their way. Actions to make a civilized society utopian leads to the creation of a dystopia due to human’s irrational drives.
Through his writing and research, Freud outlined that man was initially driven by his irrational impulses, specifically, his aggression. The aggression he was referring to pertained to man’s primitive instincts. Freud’s views and established philosophies shifted away from the previous Enlightenment ideologies of rationality of the mind. Freud’s ideas contradicted “the individual’s essential goodness and rationality” and sided with the notion that the human mind was driven by “irrati...
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...id, and symbolizes the universe in its entirety of being a dystopian society. Thus concluding that actions to make a civilized society utopian leads to dystopian reactions due to man’s irrational drives. This claim being supported based on examples in the film Serenity, as well as theoretical support analysis from Freud and Dostoyevsky.
Works Cited
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. Lawall 1250-1327.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilzation and Its Discontents. Lawall 1693-1699.
Lawall, Sarah, ed. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New
York: Norton, 2006. Print.
Perry, Marvin, ed. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society. 9th ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Print.
Serenity. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena
Baccarin, and Adam Baldwin. Universal, 2005. DVD.
“One On The Nature of Humans: Sigmund Frued.” Contemporay Psychoanaltic Studies 12. (2010): 73-88. Academic Search Complete. Web 30 April 2014.
Jinato Hu once said, “Diversity in the world is a basic characteristic of human society, and also the key condition for a lively and dynamic world as we see today.” In dystopias individuality is not accustomed to, and as a result society turns ruthless. In many dystopian communities one figurehead or concept is worshipped. Technology, happiness, or the idea of equality being praised expresses that humanity downgrades.
...e of reality, seizes the pleasures in their lives and portrays a loss of freedom. Both their perfect worlds were full of lies and instead of shielding its inhabitants from evil they gave individuals no rights of their own. What appeared in the beginning as a perfect utopian society was actually an imperfect dystopian environment.
Utopian societies are often thought to be impractical based upon the human idea that no one person or thing can ever be completely perfect. Because this idea of perfection is practically impossible to achieve, various controlled techniques need to be used in order to create a utopia. Aldous Huxley states in his foreword to Brave New World that the creation of a perfect utopia is quite possible if we as humans “refrain from blowing ourselves to smithereens” in attempts at creating social stability (xiv). Huxley’s Brave New World “depicts a World State where there is absolute social stability made possible by government-controlled research in biology and psychology” (Woiak 4). While the existence of this utopian
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
Ever since humans have conquered or established a society, their imperative duty is to try to create a utopian environment. All you can think about in its perfect sense, no mistakes, just everything impeccable. Unfortunately, one can only dream. In which as we are humans, we make mistakes and therefore defeats the meaning of a utopia, and converts into a dystopia. The absolute contrary to what we desire. It all starts with one person sharing their perfect ideas, and illuminating a light to a darkness that every other person has. That light creates hope and the people follow that person in which then over time, gets consumed by some emotion or purpose and thinks of themselves and puts everybody else at ruins, creating a world in which those people wish they never pursued those ideas.
There is often a thin line between a utopia and a dystopia. A dystopia is, after all, the result of a failed utopia. The ability for a utopian story to infect the human brain is not related to the story’s validity, it does not have to be a rational dream to gain a following (and it does not have to be the work of the good). The road to hell is paved with good intentions. People will do unspeakable things if they are told it will be worth it in the
Revolutions and civil wars have taken place and totalitarianism has become a fact that can hardly be ignored. Therefore, the modern age has become a time in which more anti-utopias have been envisioned than ever before. A lot of authors have expressed their views on utopia in their novels. Some have done it by creating their own perfect world, while others have chosen a different path. They have been selected to voice their opinions in anti-utopian novels, or dystopia.
Sigmund Freud believed that adults seduced children and this is where their problems came up in adulthood. As for all things, many people did not agree with Freud’s theory. “Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight” (McLeod, “Psychoanalysis”). According to Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory, there are three elements of personality the id, ego and superego. The id is an individual’s inner child.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the belief that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged in a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logic of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water, he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not have permission to drink, all that matters is that the needs have been met.
“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.
First, Utopian Thought argues that “Social perfection is an illusive ideal…perfection will never be attained; it is only possible to work toward it” (Hertzler 307). Rulers over utopias believe their ideas are perfect; however, they are only a passing thought of that time. Eventually, another social perfection will rise to the top, and then another. Not one ideal will endure through time as societies increase their knowledge and reason (Hertzler 308). Hertzler claims utopias alienate themselves from the world to take full advantage of the intellect that the rest of society cannot understand (Hertzler 310) because utopias are based entirely on attainable facts (Hertzler 312). Societies based on facts alone are societies lacking sensation.
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...
Cohen and Taylor argue that it is conditioning which makes us incapable of realising our dreams, “our attempt to escape from repetition towards novelty inexplicable in terms of our repression as long as we are repressed our search for instinctual satisfaction will inevitably be futile” (Cohen and Taylor 1976: 68). However, a repeated bid for freedom, is itself a repetitive action, and as such one from which security can be found. Which means, even if a short lived aspiration, the repeated quest for freedom is in itself a form of utopia. The continuous interplay between utopia and dystopia is fundamental to everyday existence and daily pursuits. Any existential unrest felt prompts people to make escape attempts
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.