James is the Best

In modern times humans have become susceptible to new psychological illnesses. Nietzsche and Freud both give different interpretations of these illnesses. Freud blames the repression of the libido and its erotic appetite, which goes against societal standards of behavior, as the cause for neurosis. While Nietzsche blames the slave revolt of morality for stopping us from acting out on our animal impulses as the root of bad conscience. It is because of different social contracts that lead the philosophers to come to different understandings of the illnesses, despite having the same prehistoric origin. For Freud the contract is a necessary part of the world and he sees neurotics as the isolated individuals who are unable to cope while Nietzsche sees the contract as a lie which damages every member of society with its bad conscience.

Freud presents an interpretation of how individuals fall ill. He states that individuals succumb to the flight to illness when they are unable to satisfy their libidinal desires for pleasure. These desires come from our untamed animal past in which we were able to do whatever we wanted. These prehistoric instincts do not go along with society’s agenda and are therefore repressed into the subconscious since they cause discomfort to the thinker. Freud believed these ideas originated from sexual frustration in the thinkers childhood and teenage years. Individuals then fall ill when their unsatisfied libidos refuse to accept that reality can offer them satisfaction. The result is that individuals fall into fantasies in order to properly achieve wish-fulfillment since they cannot seem to find satisfaction in the real world. One can avoid becoming neurotic by achieving these desires or focusing their powers e...

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... created the slave revolt of morality than it not a true social contract since it does not promote the best interests of society. In prehistory individuals were able to get by just fine without the inference of religion and were happy because of it. This contract has forced upon humans a false understanding of society, one that is at peace. The forced society then is the cause of our collective suffering. The bad conscience that we all sufferer from is then not a result of anything we individuals have done but the result of the culture in which we belong to. Thus the culture is the cause of the illness for Nietzsche

Freud and Nietzsche present two different illnesses. These illnesses are different due to the different understanding each philosopher has of the social contract. Freud blames the individual for the illness while Nietzsche blames society of the illness.