Civilization and Its Discontents

Rating:
Summary: Stuck in a dualistic world
Review: Freud's Civilization and its Discontents could arguably be one of the most compelling books you will ever encounter, if read properly. The problematic posed by Freud is a fundamental one. Freud argues that the demands of civilization and demands of our instincts are out of sync. He posits that humans are haunted by an assortment of powerful unconscious needs. These hardcore "needs" range from sexual fulfillment to a release of aggression. These primal needs for sexual fulfillment and aggressions were once the tools we used to survive. With the dawning of a new age, we no longer need to use these tools. We turn inwards. See, juxtaposed and interconnected is the other side of the coin, is civilization - a phenomenon that inhibits these primal drives. But we need civilization to give us a different sense of security. It is a catch-22. Throughout the ages, then the constant tug of war between these two forces has caused ruptures in our history was the tension is expressed in frustration.

Freud is really informative when he posits that we turn this aggression inward. Perhaps it is how civilization has configured good and evil that is turning this mechanism out of sync. In an almost sado-masochistic move, the superego is now torturing the ego. It is the collision rather than the confluence that is ruining this forced marriage. I am not certain that Nietzsche really had this sort of impact on Freud but I am reminded of Dionysus and Apollo from The Birth of Tragedy.

Nietzsche was trying to convey a partnership between them more than a countering or perhaps better, a "healthy tension." To be human is to be stretched between these two domains. The Dionysian is the raw impulses, chaos, and absurdity of existence; the Apollonian is the ordering impulse that seeks order, the eternal (in logic, religion, or morality, etc.) and beauty. As a particular existence, we are comprised of the raw stuff that is life in its very heart. We are contradiction, passions, chaos; but we cannot live in this domain alone, because it is ugly, terrifying and absurd. Thus we are wont to make it beautiful, to create from it a habitable and beautiful world (and self). Without the Dionysian, there can be no Apollonian. Without Apollonian, life would not be bearable. Hopefully, Nietzsche (as does Freud) does not advocate a return to our "bestial natures." However, Nietzsche declares that it is better to be a Cesare Borgia than a Christian, for at least great things are possible with the raw power and nobility of the beast. The Christian, to him, is enfeeblement and brutalizes the nobility and power inherent in humankind. To be capable of greatness, one must be capable of evil and good. The Christian, however, esteems everything that is meek, pitiful and weak. Action is evil, the world is evil, and we must quietly await a better one. Nietzsche, and the existentialists, would resist any attempt to ascribe a "nature" which predetermines us. We are flux. We are change. We are in a constant state of becoming and there is no prior nature that determines what we will become.

Although Freud was a champion for the recognition of these primal urges, it cannot be said that he advocated a free for all. What is really powerful in Freud is that civilization is not seen to be purely an external thing and it has real consequences on the inside. Our superego - civilizations handmaiden on the inside - is now calling the shots. As we internalize what the external is telling us to do, how to act - like gnawing guilt it invades our psyche to the extent that no matter how we wish to transgress, we become and need the very thing that causes our frustration.

If you peg the most basic response to fight or flight, then civilization can be seen to have removed that which was causing all sorts of anxiety - as we no longer express and remove sexual needs and aggression "in the wild." Freud it could be argued is saying that the superego now attacks the ego denying out most elemental needs. Those needs though, because of the reconfiguration of civilization are suppressed. The two forces - the superego and the ego, instead of working together are working against each other. If perhaps there is a hope for a sense of a new humanism, that this might be the answer - finding a way for the superego to work with rather than against the ego, that is of course if you have bought in on the duality. The debate rages on.

Miguel Llora

Rating:
Summary: One of Most Important Books of 20th Century
Review: Freud's works, although lavishly praised as a giant advance in human understanding, have proved themselves no more useful, verifiable or objective than the horoscope section of a small town newspaper. This book is exemplifies the irrational foundation of psychoanalysis above all others. Poorly reasoned arguments and absolutely fantastic assertions fill this rather rambling volume from cover to cover. Another rather disturbing aspect to this book is it's reliance on Lamarckian evolutionary theory which was completely discredited long before Freud began his writing. Freud certainly knew about this, so is he being deceitful?

However, Freud's prose is something to be admired. I suspect his writing ability (and the bizarre but energetic cult of personality that surrounded Freud during his life) was the main reason for the success of the psychoanalysis movement. It certainly wasn't the arguments for they simply lack intellectual merit.

Once you peer behind the psuedo-scientific veneer of his theories, you cannot help but to feel Freud was yet another nihilistic hedonist attempting, not only to rationalize his degeneracy, but also foist his error onto a civilization that he found so dispicable. If you read this book with a sharp analytical mind, it will go a long way in helping to destroy the cult of psychology's greatest fraud. Otherwise, Civilization and Its Discontents remains strictly a historical curiosity, not unlike the idiotic screeds of Karl Marx.

Rating:
Summary: At the edge of night again
Review: Hegel wrote " The Owl of Minerva does not take flight until the shades of night are beginning to draw" Freud wrote this work when the shades of night the darknest night the Nazis were casting their shadow over all Europe. He also wrote it when he was on the verge of his own personal going down into darkness. So the Destructive and Death- bringing aspect of human character and human civilization are very much on his mind when he writes this work. And he writes in a work in which he sees the forces of death and destruction as inside the gates from birth. Like original Sin for the Christian the power of Thanatos threatens to take the soul down forever. It threatens to make all of human life a hell of constant, ongoing conflict. To this the Mind and Eros its more positive side respond with a power of sublimation, a capacity to transform those evil instincts into constructive building powers, and this as in Judaism the ' yetzer hara' evil urge is ideally transformed into constructive action of the 'yetzer hatov' As I understand it and I do not understand it fully I admit for Freud the dark powers cannot be fully contained or sublimated but always exist at the threshhold of consciousness and History, waiting to manifest themselves again in terrible violence.
Who would have believed that little more than half a century after the Allied Forces led by the United States vanquished an enemy which threatened to turn Mankind as a whole into a totalitarian concentration camp, there would emerge a new threat from a different part of the world ( Islamic fundamentalism) in which the darkest powers within us again threaten to make all the light of civilization into an unending desert night?
Freud saw something true about the human condition, and this is the perpetual recurrence of Evil. And its perpetual transformation into new forms which may threaten us again and again.
Can we contend ? can the other positive forces prevail ?
Let us pray so lest we go into a night of nights, in which no books will be read and reviewed on Amazon, no freedom of the individual will be allowed, and all of us will be subject to a narrow dictatorial agressive dominating force which represents the worst in us at this historical moment.


Rating:
Summary: Certainly well worth the 50 cents I paid for this paperback
Review: I agree with much of lloannna, Yan and Jason. Akin to the Emperor's New Clothes. Still, you want to be able to say you were there and it was really fun to see the much ado about nothing. Read it for yourself and see. Unfortunately, before reading C & D, I'd just completed my first read of the Pantanjali Yoga Sutras, which systematically and lucidly addresses human suffering, etc. as well as providing clear guidance for coping with this suffering. While this offering of Freud can be a quick, at times engaging and charming read, I was too often thoroughly annoyed by a 'shallowness', or worse, actual deceitfulness in stating positions he must have known had been previously revealed to be untenable. Like me, you may have trouble getting past his penchant for presenting the weakest opposing argument and gently, sweetly, knocking it over in favor of his musings thinly disguised as 'fact'. And, if you've been around the block a few times, (college, grad school, law school, Hotel Earth resident for half a decade), you may find yourself astonished by his seeming lack of awareness, and/or reminded of the endless debate over the number of teeth in a horse's mouth, without simply counting them. Fortunately, the Yoga Sutras (thousands of years old) provide excellent guidance in answering for yourself the myriad questions raised by Freud.

ps if you have no deep-rooted issues with skipping ahead (or walking out of a movie that's going no where, and slowly at that), read the last 3 to 5 pages first, to get a sense of where he's headed.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting read if a bit anachronistic.
Review: I have to admit to being a little prejudiced before starting this book. I had read a lot of negative criticism of Freud, so finally I decided to read something for myself and find out what all the fuss is about. A person who creates such polar views must be saying something that touches the core. This slim book is a good place to start.

Freud clearly had a deep understanding of the human condition. When you consider he was a born in the 1800s, it is clear he was many years ahead of his time. This book discusses how the individual is inevitably subjugated by his society to become civilized. That is how the social order represses our desires. He discusses both the positive and negative aspects of this on personal development. I found it quite a difficult read as there are extensive footnotes throughout the book that are sometimes pertinent and at other times not, which I found disrupted the chain of reasoning at times.

A worthy read that has encouraged me to read more of his work.


Rating:
Summary: A very thought Provocative text
Review: I would have to definitely say that this is one read that has helped change my perception on reality, as well as give me deeper insight. Although one must be patient with Freud (his writing can, at times, rather sleep inducing), this book can open up a great deal of understanding about current literature and film. My essay I wrote for school comparing Civilization and it's Discontents and Fight Club recieved an A, and I have also been able to identify similarities from here in books such as Brave New World and Island both by Aldous Huxley.

I must say this is a recommended read that you should definitely look into!

Rating:
Summary: Surprise: Freud is actually an effective writer!
Review: Many people today believe that Sigmund Freud was obsessed with sex. However, most of these assumptions are based upon what another person said of Freud and almost never upon a careful reading of Freud's work. These people do not see the fact that Freud writes on more than sexuality, he also analyzes and researches the study of mankind. Sigmund Freud attacks the question why we do things the way we do head on and answers to the best of his reason. Therefore, Sigmund Freud was truly a man of his time and his debate on mankind was a very innovative method to answer mankind's most serious issues.
Man is an aggressive being and civilization is the means which humanity withholds its primal urges in check. At least Freud believes so and shows support for this thesis by referring to mankind's constant need to restrain its inherent passions despite all of the controls placed by society. I believe that Freud was definitely on to something with this point. He is right when he states that man is essentially an anti-social, anti-cultural being. One could look down through the pages of history and see war after war, violent act after violent primarily as a result of the inherent greed for power and a passionate thirst for more than one's own. This is one of the many reasons why communism is impossible, man is a selfish being and always desires more than he possesses. He will do what is necessary to increase his holding at the expense of his fellows. I believe that Nietzsche and Freud are in agreement at this point. However, Nietzsche believes that the masses attempt to quell this passion and label that as noble. I believe that Freud does not think it is possible to restrain this aggressiveness and mankind is only able to cover it up in a semblance of control which we label civilization. Though I see merit in both men's argument, my reaction is that there is another solution. I believe in Christian perspective that "by beholding we become changed" and with a personal relationship with Christ one is capable of achieving victory over that aggression. Freud argues that the need for self-preservation is often disrupted by a "social anxiety". This anxiety is a state in which individuals are controlled by the opinions of others towards them. Freud contends that the majority of society is ruled by this anxiety. His solution to this is a "higher stage" attainable by rising above the need to care about how others perceive one's conduct. This implies that behavior controlled by social conventions is more primitive than behavior controlled by the individual. According to Freud, morality is not an issue of socially determined shame, but a matter of internalized primal guilt. This guilt is the basis for beliefs such as an original sin and is the main catalyst in mankind's aggression. I doubt that this is the most flattering perspective to look upon our own nature, but Freud's argument does contain a lot of merit.
We read earlier in Walden that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" and I believe Freud saw this desperation as a direct result of the affects of social anxiety. We see this today in the pop culture where in order to fit in an individual must conform to the trends in fashion. We see it in the work environment where the worker flatters his boss. We see it in the political world where politicians say and do what is necessary to keep public opinions high. We are so drawn into the belief that the opinions of others matters that we spend the majority of our time and money on things we don't need to impress people we don't care about.
After reading Civilization and Its Discontents I am not under the impression that Freud is correct about everything. However, I am able to respect his writing as an important critical look at society which still has merit even today. Perhaps our world would be a better place if all of its inhabitants stop to think of why they do the things they do and what are the effects of their actions. Perhaps mankind would improve if we learned how to control our inherent aggression and to not worry about other people's opinions. Perhaps this is merely wishful thinking on my part.

Rating:
Summary: Freud as psychoanalytic sociologist.
Review: Sigmund Freud, whatever the variations in his posthumous reputation, remains the most compelling, daring, and persuasive analyst of the human condition we have. His psychoanalytic theories of sexuality, sublimation, repression, etc., offer original insights that profoundly influenced the course of Western consciousness in the 20th century. In addition to his gifts as a thinker, Freud was a master stylist, a man whose luminous prose and skillful argumentation make reading him a genuine pleasure.

"Civilization and Its Discontents," one of Freud's last works, remains one of his most vital and important. Don't be fooled by its brevity; this is a deeply complex and wide-ranging examination of Western civilization and its tensions. Freud speculates about the origins of our modern societies, the difficulties of assimilating ourselves to them given our own individual psyches, and ends the book with a rather pessimistic look forward. Clearly, Freud felt that civilization's "discontents" were an unresolvable fact of life.

What makes "Civilization and Its Discontents" so fascinating is Freud's application of psychoanalysis to Western society as whole. He examines how the factors at play in our own psyches--family conflicts, sexual desire, guilt, the "death instinct," and the eternal battle between our own self-interest and the interests of the human species at large--cause the problems that human beings encounter on a daily basis. As always with Freud, his ideas are put forward not as a final statement, but as a tentative first step.

This is one of Freud's indispensable texts, and its accessible and absorbing style make it an ideal introduction for those who are seeking to discover this colossal mind for the first time. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: Freud as psychoanalytic sociologist.
Review: Sigmund Freud, whatever the variations in his posthumous reputation, remains the most compelling, daring, and persuasive analyst of the human condition we have. His psychoanalytic theories of sexuality, sublimation, repression, etc., offer original insights that profoundly influenced the course of Western consciousness in the 20th century. In addition to his gifts as a thinker, Freud was a master stylist, a man whose luminous prose and skillful argumentation make reading him a genuine pleasure.

"Civilization and Its Discontents," one of Freud's last works, remains one of his most vital and important. Don't be fooled by its brevity; this is a deeply complex and wide-ranging examination of Western civilization and its tensions. Freud speculates about the origins of our modern societies, the difficulties of assimilating ourselves to them given our own individual psyches, and ends the book with a rather pessimistic look forward. Clearly, Freud felt that civilization's "discontents" were an unresolvable fact of life.

What makes "Civilization and Its Discontents" so fascinating is Freud's application of psychoanalysis to Western society as whole. He examines how the factors at play in our own psyches--family conflicts, sexual desire, guilt, the "death instinct," and the eternal battle between our own self-interest and the interests of the human species at large--cause the problems that human beings encounter on a daily basis. As always with Freud, his ideas are put forward not as a final statement, but as a tentative first step.

This is one of Freud's indispensable texts, and its accessible and absorbing style make it an ideal introduction for those who are seeking to discover this colossal mind for the first time. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: Civilized Discourse Leaves Discontented Reader
Review: There isn't much I can add to previous reviews of Civilziation and Its Discontents. My own reaction (after 2 cracks at it, one in college, and one post-) is one of bafflement and boredom. With academic, convoluted language, Freud discusses the role of the individual with his neuroses and his conflicts with socialization and civilization. Many of his jumbled sociological observations are better recorded by previous thinkers--Rousseau, for example. His psychological conclusions have more or less been explored at length in his previous works. Therefore, the redeeming value is found, perhaps, in Freud's closing passages, eery portends of Europe's ugly years.