Civilization and Its DiscontentsIt stands as a brilliant summary of the views on culture from a psychoanalytic perspective that he had been developing since the turn of the century. It is both witness and tribute to the late theory of mind--the so-called structural theory, with its stress on aggression, indeed the death drive, as the pitiless adversary of eros.Civilization and Its Discontents is one of the last of Freud's books, written in the decade before his death and first published in German in 1929. In it he states his views on the broad question of man's place in the world, a place Freud defines in terms of ceaseless conflict between the individual's quest for freedom and society's demand for conformity.Freud's theme is that what works for civilization doesn't necessarily work for man. Man, by nature aggressive and egotistical, seeks self-satisfaction. But culture inhibits his instinctual drives. The result is a pervasive and familiar guilt.Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey.Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, from bibliographical and explanatory. Many of the translations were done by Strachey himself; the rest were prepared under his supervision. The result was to place the Standard Edition in a position of unquestioned supremacy over all other existing versions. |
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achieved aggressive instinct aim-inhibited anal erotism anxiety arises become civiliza conscience course cultural development death instinct demands difficulty Dreams economic Editor's ego-feeling enjoyment Ernest Jones Eros ethical existence external world fact father fear feeling Fliess footnote function further genital happiness hostility human civilization idea Illusion 1927c inclination to aggression individual influence instinctual impulses Introductory Lectures Jung Karl Abraham kind later libidinal libido London man's mankind means ment mental mind narcissism nature neighbour ness neurosis object one's oneself organic original Otto Rank paper path perhaps Peter Gay pleasure principle possible primal psychical psychoanalytic punishment reality relation relationships religion remorse renunciation repression restrictions sadism Sandor Ferenczi satisfaction seems sense of guilt Servian wall sexual Sigmund Freud Standard Standard Ed stincts suffering super-ego Taboo theory things tion Totem and Taboo Trans unconscious unpleasure Vienna Vienna Psychoanalytic Society