Civilization and Its Discontents Themes

Sigmund Freud was a psychologist, therapist, and intellectual concerned with the forces at work in the human mind. His theory of “psychoanalysis,” which he developed over the course of his lifetime, has many aspects—but can be summed up, primarily, as the descriptive study of a system of internal checks and balances that regulate emotion and action.

Freud believed that the mind could be divided into the ego (the “I”), the id (deep, sometimes perverse, desires)…

Civilization’s primary conflict, which Freud outlines in the essay, is that between the will of the individual and the will of the group, the society in which that individual lives and works. Freud notes that all individuals, even those in prehistoric civilizations, exist in societies. Thus their freedoms, or supposed freedoms, must be understood in the context of what a society allows them and requires them to do. Freud argues that, in the past…

Freud acknowledges that the death drive is one of the most difficult aspects of psychoanalytic theory to understand. Humans naturally feel that they want to continue to live, and to feel pleasure (Eros). The death drive, then, is an urge in human beings to destroy an object outside the self. The death drive is manifest, therefore, in what might be termed the “love-hate” relationship. Freud claims that these relationships are actually quite common—that humans frequently…

Freud believes that religion, belief, and delusion (or misplaced belief) play an important role in individual and social regulation. In essence, religion helps individuals to feel guilty about certain things, and codifies this guilt in different ways as a means of regulating human actions for the good of larger social groups. The ultimate example of this, as Freud sees it, is the Christian “Golden Rule,” which is found in similar form in many…