Eros and

Civilization
(Part 1)

Herbert Marcuse
 Biological Domination

• “Scientific management of instinctual needs has long since become vital

factor in the reproduction of the system: merchandise which has to be
bought and used is made into objects of the libido; and the national Enemy
who has to be fought and hated is distorted and inflated to such an extent
that he can activate and satisfy aggressiveness in the depth dimension of the
unconscious.” (p. xii)

• “Culture constrain not only his societal but also his biological existence, not
only parts of the human being but his instinctual structure himself.” (p. 11)
 Three Structures of the Human Psyche

1. Id
• It comes from the German term ‘das Es’ which means “an unnerving sense of a
particular and yet unidentifiable, unbiddable presence or force that can assert itself
both within us and in the world around us – an unknown and uncontrollable
forces.”
• “Ruled by the pleasure principle, they strive for nothing but for gaining pleasure;
from any operation which might arouse unpleasantness (pain) mental activity
draws back.” (p. 13)
• “It is free from the forms and principles which constitute the conscious, social
individual. It is neither affected by time nor troubled by contradictions; it knows
‘no values, no good and evil, no morality. It does not aim at self-preservation: all
it strives for is satisfaction of its instinctual needs, in accordance with pleasure
principle.” (p. 29)
2. Ego

• “Under the influence of the external world, a part of the id, which is equipped with
the organs of reception of and the protection from stimuli, gradually developed into
the ego. It is the mediator between the id and the external world… the chief function
of the ego is that of coordinating, altering, organizing, and controlling the instinctual
impulses that are incompatible with the reality, to ‘reconcile’ others with the reality
by changing their object, delaying, or diverting their gratification, transforming their
mode of gratification, amalgamating them with other impulses, and so on.” (p. 30)

• “The substitution of the reality principle for the pleasure principle implies no
deposing of the pleasure principle, but only a safeguarding of it. A momentary
pleasure, uncertain in its results, is given up, but only in order to gain along the
new path an assured pleasure at a later time.” (Functions, 304) [the
postponement of gratification, and the temporary toleration of unpleasure on
the long road to pleasure.”] (Beyond Pleasure Principle, 48)
3. Superego
• “It originates from the long dependency of the infant on his parents; the parental
influence remains the core of the superego. Subsequently, a number of societal
and cultural influences are taken in by the superego until it coagulates into the
powerful representative of established morality and what people call the higher
things in human life.” (p. 32)

• “The reality principle supersedes the pleasure principle: man learns to give up
momentary, uncertain, and destructive pleasure for delayed, restrained, but
‘assured’ pleasure. Because of the lasting gain through renunciation and restraint,
according to Freud, the reality principle ‘safeguards’ rather than ‘dethrones ‘,
‘modifies’ rather than denies, the pleasure principle.” (p. 13)
 Sense of Guilt
• “The ‘external restrictions’ … are ‘introjected’ into the ego and becomes its
‘conscience’; henceforth, ‘the sense of guilt’ – the need for punishment generated
by the transgressions or by the wish to transgress these restrictions permeates the
mental life. ‘As a rule the ego carries out repressions in the service and at the
behest of its superego’. However, the repressions soon become unconscious,
automatic as it were, and a ‘great part’ of the sense of guilt remains unconscious.”
(p 32)

• “The manifold process of introjection seems to be ossified in almost mechanical

reactions. The result is not adjustment but mimesis: an immediate identification of
the individual with his society.” (One Dimensional Man, 10)
• “The restrictions imposed upon the libido appears as the more rational, the
more universal they become, the more they permeate the whole of society.
They operate on the individual as external objective laws and as an
internalize force: the social authority is absorbed into the ‘conscience’ and
into the unconscious of the individual and works as his own desire,
morality, and fulfillment.” (p. 46)

• “The reality principle materializes in a system of institutions. And the

individual, growing up with such a system, learns the requirements of the
reality principle as those of law and order, and transmits them to next
generation.” (p 15)
 De-erotization/Desexualization of Instincts
• “the psychoanalytic interpretation reveals that the reality principle enforces a change
not only in the form and timing of pleasure but in its very substance. The adjustment
of pleasure to the reality principle implies the subjugation and diversion of the
destructive force of instinctual gratification, of its compatibility with the established
societal norms and relations, and, by that token, implies the transubstantiation of
pleasure itself.” (p. 13)
• “a whole dimension of human activity and passivity has been de-eroticized. The
environment from which the individual could obtain pleasure – which he could
cathect as gratifying almost as an extended zone of the body – has been rigidly
reduced. Consequently, the ‘universe’ of libidinous cathexis is likewise reduced. The
effect is localization and contraction of the libido, the reduction of erotic to sexual
experience and satisfaction.” (One-Dimensional Man, 73)
 Surplus and Basic Repression
Surplus Repression “the restriction necessitated by social domination.”
“repression from without has been supported by repression from within:
the unfree individual introjects his masters and their commands into his own
mental apparatus. The struggle against freedom reproduces itself in the
psyche of man, as the self-repression of the repressed individual, and his
self-repression in turn sustains his masters and their institutions.” (p. 16)
Basic Repression “the modifications of the instincts necessary for the
perpetuation of the human race in civilization”
 False Consciousness and False Needs
• “False are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular
social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil,
aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most
gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has
to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the
ability to recognize the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness.”

• “No matter how much such needs may have become the individual’s own,
reproduced and fortified by the conditions of his existence; no matter how
much he identifies himself with them and finds himself in their satisfaction,
they continue to be what they were from the beginning – products of a
society whose dominant interest demands repression.” (One-Dimensional
Man, 5)
 Performance Principle
 Performance Principle
• The prevailing historical form of reality principle. Under its rule the society is
stratified according to the competitive economic performances of its members.

• “As reification tends to become totalitarian by virtue of its technological form, the
organizers and administrators themselves becomes increasingly dependent on the
machinery which they organize and administer. And this mutual dependence is no
longer the dialectical relationship between Master and Servant, which has been
broken in the struggle for mutual recognition, but rather a vicious circle which
encloses both the Master and the Servant.” (one dimensional man, 33)
• “The reality principle asserts itself through a shrinking of the conscious ego
in a significant direction: the autonomous development of the instincts is
frozen, and their pattern fixed at the childhood level. Adherence to the
status quo is implanted in the instinctual structure.” (p 33)