Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents
Uploaded by allupinu69 on Oct 31, 2011
This essay examines the first three chapters of Freud’s discourse.
I Introduction
Although in recent years Freud has come under heavy criticism, particularly for his theories in regard to women’s sexual feelings, there is still no doubt that he deserves his place in history: he is the founder of the field of psychoanalysis. Even if later psychologists feel that he is no longer the “Bible” on all personality theory, he still has a tremendous impact on the field.
This paper examines the first three chapters of his short work Civilization and Its Discontents, and explains what he means by what he describes as an “oceanic” feeling and the “memory trace,” and then tackles a larger question: what really bothers Freud about society, and why it has such a harmful effect on humanity.
II Chapter I
This chapter deals with the “oceanic” feeling, which Freud attributes to a sense that we are all connected; all part of a much larger whole—that we are connected to the Universe, in fact. However, he says that he has been unable to feel this way himself, but that this sensation has been described to him by a friend.
He goes on to suggest that what the feeling provides for his friend is a sense of continuity with the past. He uses the example of Rome, and what it might be like if we could see the city as it was, as well as the way it is today; that is, what we might make of it if all the ancient buildings could somehow also co-exist in the same space and time with their modern equivalents. This would enable us to see history and change over time, which would give us that feeling of connectedness—the “oceanic” feeling his friend described.
Such a thing is obviously physically impossible, so Freud posits that perhaps the feeling is really the basis for religious feelings, a need to account for our lives and our purpose for existence, though he attaches little importance to this interpretation. An alternative possibility is that the “oceanic” feeling is the experience we have before our ego separates itself from the rest of the universe: “Or, to put it more correctly, originally the ego includes everything, later is separates off an external world from itself.” (Freud, p. 15).
It seems likely that both theories are reasonable, and accepting one doesn’t...