Sigmund Freud's Civilization And Its Discontents

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst who is known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. His book “Civilization and Its Discontents” show how civilization can cause discontent in human beings and why people must undergo the civilization process. In it, he proposes a theory, which states that civilization itself is the main reason why there is unhappiness among civilized people. He describes civilization as “a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind.” (Freud, pg. 396) During this process, civilization pushes people into a constant state of guilt, which ultimately causes this unhappiness. He draws upon themes used previously in his work on psychoanalysis to explore reasons why this guilt occurs, and the ways in which it impacts human instincts. Towards the end of the piece, Freud suggests that civilizations and individuals develop in similar ways. …show more content…
One of the requirements that he puts forth is that the men that are brought together by it must be “libidinally bound to each other.” Freud states that these things cannot be bound together by necessity alone, or advantages of There must also be the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction must also be present in the process of civilization. Life essentially consists of this struggle between Eros and Death. Freud describes the evolution of civilization as the struggle for life of the human species. During the civilization process, man’s natural instincts are inhibited, and they are pushed into a constant state of guilt, which ultimately causes them to be