Matthew Colburn

4/22/15
Nietzsches Influence
In his text Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud suggests that
the constraints of civilization are unnatural to humans and in turn harm them
to a certain degree. Stating that if civilization imposes such great sacrifices
not only on mans sexuality but his aggressivity, we can understand better
why it is hard for him to be happy in that civilization (Freud 752), Freud
implies that humanity is innately aggressive and overt: that which civilization
aims to suppress. In turn, Freud believes that the suppression of ones nature
is harmful to their mental health and is responsible for much unhappiness
and lack of fulfillment in civilized societies. This is very similar to a belief that
Nietzsche held in Genealogy of Morals. In his text Genealogy of Morals,
Nietzsche suggests that much of humanitys discontent and innerresentment came from the suppression of their aggressive, dominative
nature. He claimed that this discontent arose when humanitys predominant
ethic switched from that of master morality, which supports incredibly
primitive and innate actions, and slavish morality, which supports
unnaturally rational and moral actions. These were polar opposite sides of
morality, and Nietzsche suggests that the only way for man to feel at peace
is for it to find a code of ethics that balanced the two. In turn, this is similar
to how Freud believes that civilization is too composed and suppressive for

humans to feel at ease in, yet the lives of those living in entirely primal
societies are by no means envied for [their] freedom (Freud 752). Both
believe that society has to find a balance between the rational and controlled
and the instinctual and primal ways of living in order for man to feel at
peace, and in turn Freud and Nietzsche have similar theories about societal
peace-of-mind.