Comparing Sigmund Freud's Civilization And Its Discontents

Despite living in a world tailored towards human comfort, for many, happiness is an elusive mental state. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud argues that Human Nature and Civilization are at loggerheads, and that this incongruity makes happiness difficult to achieve. Freud is correct in arguing that human happiness is hindered by a conflict between internal desires and external strictures; however, he attributes far too little suffering to the individual’s fallacious desire for control, and far too much to the technological advancements of our ever-changing civilizations.
Freud’s argument is flawed for its underestimation of the role that the individual’s fallacious desire for control plays in causing suffering. For example, in his discussion of the first acts of Civilization, Freud points to “the control over fire… as a quite extraordinary and unexampled achievement”; however, …show more content…
In reference to technology he notes that the development of long-distance phone conversation enables communication between a mother and her son, but their distance is only a result of other technological advancements that enable long-distance travel. Freud states that this “newly-won power over space and time, this subjugation of the forces of nature… has not made [humankind] feel happier,” as if simply enabling more rapid transportation or ease of communication should bring about an increase in happiness. On the contrary, long-distance conversation only creates the illusion of increased control over the life of the person on the other end, a temporary but fleeting form of happiness. The disappointment Freud discusses, therefore, is not with technology itself but with the lack of control it brings; happiness, then, is impeded not by the impositions of changing technology, but by a fallacious desire for