Chapter 6įreud quotes Schiller: 'hunger and love are what moves the world.' At first glance, the two appear to be driven by opposing instincts. Freud points to American society as an example of this danger, but refrains from pursuing his criticism further.

The most dangerous society, according to him, is one in which the leader is exalted and individuals do not acquire an adequate sense of identity. Freud does not specify which limitations on our instinctual freedom fall into which category. Some of these limitations of modern society are surmountable, while others are intrinsic to civilization. But primitive society is not to be envied, since in that context, only the head of the family enjoyed instinctual freedom at the expense of all others. The Jews in the Middle Ages were, for instance, the victims of intolerance by Christians and in Russia, vilification of the bourgeois has served as a rallying cry for the communist government.įreud concludes that civilized man has exchanged the possibility of happiness for security. It has also served throughout history to bind communities together against those outside them. Aggression predates the ownership of property. For Freud, communism is based on a faulty assumption, since it in no way alters human nature, only one of the motivations by which it operates (i.e. Communists claim to find the path to deliverance through the abolition of private property, which thereby eliminates an economic system that allows certain individuals to accrue disproportionate wealth and abuse his fellow men. The law has tried to refine itself to the point of regulating most forms of aggression, but it still fails to prevent it.įreud then turns to socialist thought. It invests great energy in restraining these instincts. Civilization is continually threatened with disintegration because of this inclination to aggression. The biblical commandment runs counter to the original nature of man, and history is the proof: man has proven time and again that he will exploit, abuse, humiliate, cause pain, torture and kill other men, from the invasion of the Huns to the First World War. If the activity of the libido were allowed to run rampant, it would likely destroy the monogamous love-relationship of the couple that society has endorsed as the most stable.įreud next objects to the commandment 'Love thy neighbor' because, contrary to Biblical teaching, he takes a pessimistic view of fellow man, whose primal instinct Freud considers to be aggressive, not loving. Freud notes that civilization's antagonism toward sexuality arises from the necessity work of building communal bonds based on friendship.

Sigmund freud civilization