There is a very commonly held belief that life is difficult. More to the point, life consists of a lot of suffering. It is common to hear comments such as, life is a constant struggle, life is an uphill battle, a never-ending fight. These comments raise many questions about the nature, or even the very existence of absolute happiness. Is it possible for a human being to ever achieve complete happiness? Answering this question completely is impossible because humans are very complex and each one of us has a different definition of happiness.
Sigmund Freud took a different approach to the question of human happiness. In an excerpt from his book, which is titled Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud identified what he felt were the three main sources of human suffering. He says “...the three sources from which our suffering comes: the superior power of nature, the feebleness of our bodies and the inadequacies of the regulations which adjust the mutual relationships of human being in the family, the state and society” (Zwann, Junyk, & Zielinski, 2010). That is to say that Freud identified the origins of human suffering in rejecting and controlling our natural human instincts, the limitations of our human bodies, and the conflict between being true to ourselves and being a civilized individual. Furthermore, Freud was of the opinion that though we eventually accept, though are dissatisfied with the first two components of struggling, we are constantly at war with ourselves due to the last attribute. I find that I can agree with Freud on quite a few topics in his discussion, but that a lot of questions are ultimately raised from his thoughts. I plan on discussing and addressing all of these issues in this paper.
Let us take a loo...
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...ence with hardly a moment's notice. Suffering also arises in the knowledge of our own mortality and our physical limitations. The human being is well aware that the body will one day fail in one way or another. Finally, there is the suffering that comes from the struggle between the individual existence trying to fit with the existence of civilization. Due to the fact that human beings require social connections for both protection and emotional support, the formation of societies and civilizations is inevitable. Human suffering is ultimately an unavoidable aspect of life.
Works Cited
taboo. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Web. 23 November 23, 2014.
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Zwann, V., Junyk, I., & Zielinski, G. (Ed.). (2010). Cust 1000Y Introduction to the study of modern culture. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Scholars' Press Inc
And indeed, suffering, lack of safety, is unavoidable, and also necessary for some things. "When I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through. It's repulsive to think you have to suffer that much" (65). But we do. Everyone does. In fact, "There's no way not to suffer" (65). We are never safe from it.
Despite its prevalence, suffering is always seen an intrusion, a personal attack on its victims. However, without its presence, there would never be anyway to differentiate between happiness and sadness, nor good and evil. It is encoded into the daily lives people lead, and cannot be avoided, much like the prophecies described in Antigone. Upon finding out that he’d murdered his father and married his mother,
The Levin Institute - The State University of New York. "Pop Culture." Globalization101. The Levin Institute - The State University of New York, 2014. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
As children we start off with believing that the world is good and our parents are perfect. As we grow we realize that our parents can and will make mistakes and everything is not as good as it seems. According to Freud we then need something to compensate for the anxieties of o...
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short story in which James Baldwin, the author, presents an existential world where suffering characterizes a man’s basic state. The theme of tragedy and suffering can be transformed into a communal art form such as blues music. Blues music serves as a catalyst for change because the narrator starts to understand that not only the music but also himself and his relationship with Sonny. The narrator’s view of his brother begins to change; he understands that Sonny uses music as an exit of his suffering and pain. This story illustrates a wide critical examination. Richard N. Albert is one critic that explores and analyzes the world of “Sonny’s Blues”. His analysis, “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”” is an example of how one can discover plot, characterization and jazz motif that builds this theme of suffering.
forms of suffering. As we grow older, we learn that certain things that we want may involve some pain. For example, goals need some type of action in order to be attained. Schopenhauer says that humans experience pain in everything, such as performing routines, we become enslaved to them. Schopenhauer view of life is constructed in an optimistic way. He believes that human life is not a wonderful thing because it brings pain into our lives. He emphasizes this reality by pointing out that it does not benefit humans to suffer.
Sigmund Freud has been heralded as one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. He is renowned for his discoveries about the human mind, particularly dreams, fantasies, and the role of the unconscious. Even though many of his theories were (and are) viewed as controversial, his ideas revolutionized the way people think about themselves. The potency of his notions have permeated almost every discipline, including literature, art, and medicine. This paper will examine the life, the influences, and the impact of Sigmund Freud. It will begin by discussing who he is, his personal history, and then talk about his role in the development of psychoanalysis. Next it will discuss some of the individuals who greatly inspired Freud. Finally, it will move on to talk about some of those upon whom Freud was an influence.
Suffering is an individual's basic affective experience of pain or distress, often as a result of one’s physical, emotional or spiritual circumstance (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 2006). Suffering can be classified as physical; for example pain caused by a dislocated knee, emotional; for example one’s grief over the death of a loved one, or spiritual; which is described as the state of being separated from the blissful nature of your divine self (soul). To suffer physically or emotionally is often unavoidable; however it can be argued that spiritual liberation...
Furthermore, even the happiest and carefree of people will eventually experience some kind of suffering. The Buddha taught people to recognize that suffering is part of life and that it cannot be avoided. However, this suffering does not only come from the body—it also comes from within. Those who experience loneliness, depression, anxiety, or cannot satisfy their needs and wants are suffering. Despite the negative aspects of suffering, Siddhartha also spoke of happiness through friendships, family life, or health. Though, the downfall to this is that happiness is impermanent—or annica—and will not end all suffering. Buddhists believe that the way to end suffering is to first accept the fact that suffering is a fact of life. The next aspect to recognize is what causes such suffering?
We spend much of our lives focusing upon getting happy. We pursue happiness like it’s a destination on a map that we need to reach before sundown. What is happiness? Will this endless pursuit result in happiness?
According to Brooks (2014), people seek happiness but indirectly obtain several tests that affects their emotions in many ways. Indeed, when people are is questioned about their past, memories coming back to her mind are often the most important positively as negatively. A positive event can be the birth of a child, success. In contrast, a negative event is often links to death, failure, a dismissal, and so on. Suffering or pain also gives us an outside perspective. Without a doubt, suffering makes us human we like it or not. For example, when a friend tells that she has failed an exam and we realize that we could get it easily, it is hard to understand exactly her emotion because we have never been in the situation. But when the same situation arises and you become the concerned, you understand the effect that this failure may have on you emotionally. In this sense, we understand that suffering makes people human because it helps them to be connected to a situation already happened before or which could happen in the future.
The indifference of people is to behave or act as if something, someone or some event
1a&b. According to our lecture, the idea of our life is nothing but suffering comes from one of the four noble truth - Pali Dukkha - “This is dukkha: birth is painful, aging is painful, sickness is painful, death is painful, encountering what is not dear is painful, separation from what is dear is painful, not getting what one wants is painful. This psycho-physical condition is painful.” (Mv.I) said by Gotama, these painful things causing us to suffer. Those suffering are not our subjective experiences but part of the fundamental nature of our world (Knickelbine, M. 2011). In Buddhism, there are many kinds of suffering, we can categorize them into 8 types in 3 catalog. The three catalogs are – inherited suffering, suffering between the
According to Freud, conflict is produced in each individual by the demands of his construct as he tries to meet the requirements that civilization imposes. The conflict, ultimately, is solved, but at the expense of each individual's happiness. For Freud, happiness is the purpose of life. He also sees that the purpose of life is the program of the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle is that humans seek to attain happiness because it is the absence of pain and displeasure, and happiness evokes strong feelings of pleasure. He writes,
Kroeber, A. and C. Klockhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concept and Definition New York: Vintage Books, 1989.