More handpicked essays just for you.
Critical essay on sigmund freud
Critical essay on sigmund freud
Sigmund freuds civilization and its discontents thesis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Critical essay on sigmund freud
In Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud juggles between the civilized and savage human lives in order to show his assessment on civilization, the source of discontent. Civilization is a paradox. According to Freud, civilization, although its purpose would seem to assist the advancement of human misery and suffering, is actually somewhat the cause for that suffering. This explains human’s subliminal hostility toward civilization. His assessment on civilization has relation to his theory of instincts and the individual psyche because that is where the civilization emerges from. As Freud states on page 73, "If civilization imposes such great sacrifices not only on man's sexuality but on his aggressivity, we can understand better why it is hard for him to be happy in that civilization. In fact, primitive man was better off in knowing no restrictions of instinct." Freud argues that civilization is basically harmful
He had mainly focused on love/sexual drives (Eros), but he now accepts the existence of the "aggressive instinct," which is related to Thanatos, the god of death. Freud had earlier denied those who considered the existence of an aggressive instinct and resisted the acceptance of this belief. He eventually comes to accept this hypothesis. Freud’s understanding of civilization is a result of the struggle between affection and aggression, two of the fundamental instincts. Civilization is a conflicted matter. It is the product of opposing drives and impulses.
Freud thinks the purpose of civilization is to provide protection from nature for humans. It adjusts and regulates the mutual relations among human beings. It sets humans up for interactions with others. But aside from that, civilization also promotes things that seems useless, such as things like beauty, order, and art are useless. So you can say that civilization also produces luxuries and supposedly enhances this so called "quality of
It can perhaps be inferred from the title that Freud’s work will have a languished tone. When describing the workings of civilization, Freud chooses words with negative connotations, such as “restriction” and “perversion” (Freud 49, 59). He ends the work by bleakly asking “may we not be justified that under the influence of cultural urges…possibly the whole of mankind—have become neurotic?” (Freud 110). He sees no feasible solution to the conflicts between human tendencies and civilization. In Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi outlook is despondent and fatalistic. His anecdotes focus solely on the horrible experiences he and his fellow prisoners must endure at the work camp. This tone changes, however, once he begins to form relationships with other men in the camp; he becomes focused on survival and abandons the forlorn tone to focus on survival. As Auschwitz is abandoned and the prisoners left are striving to survive, he recounts that he gave everyone nasal drops of camphorated oil “for pure propaganda purposes…I assured Sertelet that they would help him; I even tried to convince myself” (Levi 168). Instead of wallowing in their state as Sigmund Freud does, Primo Levi looks for ways to be optimistic and instill hope in his
Civilization is the thing that keeps us in line. We have a system of checks and balances to make sure everyone behaves. If someone does something we believe to be morally wrong the person is punished. Take away civilization and society will go to ruin. People will revert back to their primal selves. Going on instinct and not intellect.
Webster's online dictionary defines civilization as "a society in an advanced state of social development". Without the restraints of society, the behaviour of people will regress to their savage beginnings, due to the fact that one's need for survival will overpower all other impulses. The descent into savagery, man's inherent desire to survive over anything else, and the need for civilization and order shows how society unnaturally holds everyone together. Society artificially bonds everything together by imposing rules and structures and without the reminders of civilization and its conventions the savagery of human nature emerges.
However, in Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud wholeheartedly takes an abstract and philosophical approach to explaining the misery of humans. To Freud, misery has always been a part of the human experience. Indeed, he makes the conclusion that suffering has been caused by three forces since the dawn of humanity: the decay of the mortal body, nature, and relationships with others (Freud 44). Freud states that human interaction is often disregarded as a cause of human suffering, yet to him it seems to cause the most pain out of the three. In the novel, Freud goes on to explain that civilization was created to reduce and mitigate the suffering caused by nature and the mortal body, while ignoring the suffering caused by human interaction. Seeing as humans still suffer as they always have, Freud comes to the “astonishing conclusion that civilization itself is the primary cause of human suffering (58). He and others have come to this conclusion through observing the victory of Christianity over pagan religions (as Christianity places low value on earthly life), the conquering of content native peoples by Europeans, and the development of
After reading this week’s readings, I decide to focus my attention on Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, and to briefly touch on pragmatic views. I can see the similarities between the two, were religion, philosophy and science all intertwines, as it relates to finding truth or should I say truth as it relates to achieving certain goals in order to support social values and needs. The implications that what is true, may not necessarily be true, and that any and all knowledge that contributes to human values, can be interpreted as truth. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics should be viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes and that knowledge can be evaluated from the goals that this knowledge is able to support
“To call either man optimistic about human nature would be stretching a point. They point out flaws, and Freud, at least, attempts to find a means to cure them. According to both, the human spirit simply does not soar, and frustrations and unhappiness continue to keep human nature from finding happiness.” (1)
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
...ual tendencies by repressing them. He claims that this will be better for society and allow for better coexistence between people. Freud used free association so that we would be able to relate anything which came into our mind, regardless of how irrelevant or embarrassing. By just stating whatever is on one’s mind Freud was able to find what we are like and further analyze the root of our problems. He believed that we would eventually verbalize what our unconscious mind was storing and he would then be able to treat us. Freud stated that the Oedipus complex is essential for maturation. It is a process that must occur in males and (Electra complex) in females. It is critical for the child to identify with being in competition with other males and a fixation for mating with females during this stage. If they do not then they may become homosexual or pedophiles etc.
“Civilization and Its Discontents” is a book written by Sigmund Freud in 1929 (originally titled “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur” or The Uneasiness in Culture.) This is considered to be one of Freud’s most important and widely read works. In this book, Freud explains his perspective by enumerating what he sees as fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He asserts that this tension stems from the individual’s quest for freedom and non-conformity and civilization’s quest for uniformity and instinctual repression. Most of humankind’s primitive instincts are clearly destructive to the health and well-being of a human community (such as the desire to kill.) As a direct result, civilization creates laws designed to prohibit killing, rape, and adultery, and has severe consequences for those that break these laws. Freud argues that this process is an inherent quality of civilization that instills perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens. This theory is based on the idea that humans have characteristic instincts that are immutable. The most notable of these are the desires for sex, and the predisposition to violent aggression towards authoritative figures as well as sexual competitors. Both of these obstruct the gratification of a person’s instincts. Freud also believes that humans are governed by the pleasure principle, and that they will do whatever satisfies or pleasures them. He also believes that fulfilling these instincts satisfies the pleasure principle.
In addition to Freud’s stages of development his best-known concepts are those of the id, ego, and superego (Crain, p. 268). The id personality called ‘the unconscious” is the personality that focuses on maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain through reflexes and drives such as hunger or bladder tensions (Crain, pp. 268-269). The id concept is impulsive, chaotic and unrealistic.
Freud believed that a human must go through certain stages in their lives or they will not socially develop to their full extent. He also made claims that a human is always struggling between their human, and instinctual nature. This was a very controversial topic because Freud concluded there was a lack of individuality of the human race. If Freud’s theory was the case then humans would have less of a choice in their life, and are truly slaves to their instinctual nature. While an intelligent figure of his time, I believe that Freud went in the wrong direction when approaching his theory. While humans do have a large amount of urges that he described, the person themselves can choose what to do based not solely on society, but their wants and needs as well. Had Freud been alive today I’m sure that his theory would have theorized much different things about the human nature. I think it is important to analyze the distinct cultural setting behi...
In Sigmund Freud's observation, humans are mainly ambitious by sexual and aggressive instincts, and search for boundless enjoyment of all needs. However, the continuous pursuit of gratification driven by the identification, or unconscious, directly conflicts with our society as the uncontrolled happiness. Sigmund Freud believed that inherent sexual and aggressive power prevented from being expressed would cause our "society to be miserable and the forfeiture of contentment." Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality theory is based on the perception that greatly of human behavior is determi...
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the belief that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged in a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logic of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water, he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not have permission to drink, all that matters is that the needs have been met.
“Psychological - or more strictly speaking, psychoanalytic -investigation shows that the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs... [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain...” At its simplest form, this quote perfectly explains Sigmund Freud’s theory on human nature. Human beings, according to Freud, are in a constant state of conflict within themselves; trying to satisfy their animalistic instincts, while also maintaining a socially appropriate life. Freud termed these animalistic tendencies that we have, the Id. The Id is essentially our unconscious mind, it is the part of us that has been there since the day we were born and is what drives our life’s needs and desires. The Id simply aims to satisfy our sexual or aggressive urges immediately, without taking into account any further implications. On the other hand, Freud used the term, the Superego, to describe man’s conscience and sense of morality. It is the Superego’s job to keep the Id in check by combatting the desire to satisfy urges with the feeling of guilt or anxiety. Finally, the Ego, is the conscious representation of the constant battle between the Superego and the Id. It must work to satisfy human’s instinctual tendencies while taking into account their conscience and doing what is rational and acceptable. Freud argues that these internal process that are constantly at work in our mind are what shape humans to do the things that they do. Thus, he believes, the goal of human nature is to satisfy our basic aggressive and sexual desires while adhering to cultural and social standards.
Throughout Freud’s time, he came up with many different theories. One of his theories was Life and Death Instincts. This theory evolved throughout his life and work. He believed that these drives were responsible for much of behavior. He eventually came to believe that these life instincts alone couldn’t explain all human behavior. Freud then determined that all instincts fall into one of 2 major classes: the life instincts or the death instincts. Life instincts deal with basic survival, reproduction, and pleasure. Death instincts are apparent after people experience a traumatic event and they often reenact the experience. In Freud’s view, self-destructive behavior is an expression of the energy that is created by the death instincts.