Nature And Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Human Nature

Some of the greatest minds have put together their personal theories about human nature and how they came to their ultimate decision. Human nature is comprised of how people feel, think, and act, and how they naturally came by those assets. Culture and religion often are what feed a person’s innermost thought processes, and nature vs nurture is an argument that many theorists have studied and formulated an opinion on. The questions of whether humans are born sinful or innately good have been disputed for and against, and the theories for why we are the way that we are rages on.

Sigmund Freud’s theory of human nature asserted that we are all very similar and pursue fulfillment of basic needs. These desires are not limited to self-preservation, love, pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Freud also theorized that to feel angry was neither good nor bad but served a purpose to attain a basic need. This theorist professed that humans are actually animalistic in their desire for self-preservation and that he saw no evidence for a humanistic instinct for the pursuit of perfection. He believed that we are simply more intelligent animals and that “homo homini lupus”, man is a

Later the philosopher Avicenna would more fully adapt the theory that humans are born pure and that with knowledge and life experience that we start forming a perception of the world around us. Philosopher John Locke also attributed that the start of human nature is as a blank slate, and that we are to “author our own souls” through sensory experiences. With so many of the greatest minds believing that we are born “tabula rasa” must mean that we are born without a preamble for immorality but that we learn it through the world around us. Those that support that our human nature is nurtured, rather than a born unto nature, also back the concept of “tabula