Question

Next Freud turns to “the nature of this civilization on whose value as a means to happiness doubts have been thrown” (36). We associate civilization with “everything which can assist in the exploitation of the earth by man and in his protection against the forces of nature,” with “beauty, cleanliness, and order,” with “intellectual, scientific, and artistic achievements,” and “the last, but certainly not the least important, of the characteristic features of civilization remains to be assessed: the manner in which the relationships of men to one another, their social relationships, are regulated . . . .” Can the claim of the individual be reconciled with the cultural claims of the group, or is the required renunciation of instinct too demanding?

(This is for the Histroy of Social Thought Class)

Answer 1

The excerpt from the book Civilization and its Discontents, Freud explores the significant clash between the desire for individuality and the expectations of society in which the place of individuals gets undermined in the larger narrative of civilization. The fundamental aim of Freud is to give emphasis to the individual's quest for instinctive freedom and present the contrary demand of civilization for conformity and repression of instincts. The cultural claim or specifically the claim of civilization is that it claims to offer the good desirable thing often dismissing the individual's part in making it. The individual claim can be reconciled following what Freud has to say about civilization. According to Freud, when any situation which is desired by the pleasure principle is prolonged, it creates a feeling of mild contentment. The contentment leads to many of humankind's primitive instincts such as the desire to kill and the insatiable craving for sexual gratification, which are found to be harmful to the well-being of a human community.

For this reason, it was found necessary, for the civilization to creates laws that prohibit killing, rape, and adultery along with severe punishments if these rules are broken. Thus law restricts our possibilities for the happiness of individuals. Freud argues this process to be an inherent quality of civilization that gives rise to perpetual feelings of discontent among its citizens or the individuals. Humans have certain characteristic instincts that are immutable. The claim of individual have been reconciled through these laws and also religion according to Freud, has tamed a social instinct and created a sense of community around a shared set of beliefs, thus helping a civilization.