Sigmund Freuds Civilization and its Discontents

1) What is Freuds assessment of civilization and how does that assessment relate to his theory
of instincts and the individual psyche?
2) Freuds development of his theory of instincts
3) Most pressing problem
4) How does he define civilization in relation to instincts?
5) What is the relationship between civilization and the individual human psyche?
6) What is meant by the title of the work from which this excerpt is taken civilization and its
discontents?

Notes

Religion, Science, Art

3 measures to deal with pain
o Powerful deflections cause us to make light of our misery
o Substitutive satisfactions diminish misery
o Intoxicating substances make us insensitive to it
Purpose of life lays in religion
Human strive after happiness, to be happy and remain so
o Aims at an absence of pain and unpleasure
o Aims at experiencing of strong feelings of pleasure
Programme of the pleasure principle decides the purpose of life
o Our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution.
Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience
o Threated from 3 directions
From our own body which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which
cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals
From the external world which may rage against us with overwhelming
and merciless forces of destruction
From our relations to other men most painful
Our mental apparatus has other influences
o Just as a satisfaction of instinct spells happiness for us, so severe suffering is easily
caused if the external world let us starve, if it refuses to sate our needs
o Hope to be freed from suffering
Influencing the instinctual impulses does not work on sensory apparatus
Sensory apparatus seeks to mater the internal sources of our needs
Does so by killing off the instinct example: yoga
Sacrificed life to achieve the happiness of quietness
We follow the same path with a less extreme aim and to merely control our instinctual life
o Protection against suffering secured

Non-satisfaction is not as painfully felt compared to an uninhibited instinct

However, it diminishes the feeling of happiness a wild instinctual impulse
untamed has a more intense feeling of happiness
Another technique to fend off suffering
o No sexual desire
One gains the most if one can sufficiently heighten the yield of pleasure from the sources of
psychical and intellectual work
The programme of becoming happy, imposed by the pleasure principle, cannot be fulfilled
o Yet, we cannot give up on bringing it closer to fulfillment in some way
o Different paths to reach happiness pg35

Thinking like historians.

What is the value of Civilization and Its Discontents as a historical
document?
The way in the time period Freud was living in.
1.

Think about the subquestions that are laid out in the first writing assignment prompt:
2.

How does Freud explain the development of his theory of instincts?

3.

What does that explanation tell us about what he considers the most
pressing problem?

aggressive instinct (not happiness but more on violence and aggressiveness)

4.

How does he define civilization in relation to instincts?

What is the relationship between civilization and the individual human

psyche?
(afraid of opinions from)
5.

6.

What is meant by the title, Civilization and Its Discontents

Just for thought

7.

What does Freud say is the purpose of life? What is Freuds outlook? Is this
obtainable?

8.

How does civilization place limits on mans aggressiveness?

9.

Freud doesnt seem to make a distinction between the instincts of men and
women. Is this because aggressive instincts plagues women and men
equally?

10. What would Freud think of violent video games, which allow gamers to

virtually out their violent, aggressive instincts?

Surpress anger or unleash anger