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    Freud Civilization and Its Discontents

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    15 views55 pages

    Freud Civilization and Its Discontents

    Uploaded by

    Eugenia Kara
    Freud Civilization and Its Discontents

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    By Sigmund Freud 48 avTomocearmicaL spy ‘Tar 10 AND TE 1D Naw ernopucTORY LECTURE OW PrvcHOANALYAs ‘AN OUTUNE OF PevcHOANALYSES ‘WE QUEETION OF Lay ANALYaS JONES Axo THEIR RELATION 0 TE UNCONIcIOUS ‘@vizaTion ANo 115 puiconreNTs ivilization AND ITS es Discontents SIGMUND EREUD Newly Translated from the German and Edited by ‘convmci @ 1981 aw jaseas srabcsry rimsr mnaeAN rosTi0N 1962 {trary of Congres Catalog Catt No, 81340 CONTENTS Ears Fnroduction « Civlinson and ie Dicontents Bibliography and Author Index (Gener Index 5 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION DAS UNBEHAGEN IN DER KULTUR (0) Geawan Eprross: 1930 Vienna: Internationaler Prychoanalytischer Verlag. Pp. 136. 1931. nd ed. (Reprint of lat ed, with yome additions) 1934 GS. 12,29-114. Be 1949_GW., 14, 421-506, . (@) Bxouae Teanstarion: Grlization and ite Discontents 1930 London: Hogurth Press and Institute of Prycho-Analysiy, ‘New York: Cape and Smith. Pp. 144, (Tr. Joan Riviere) “The present tranalation is based on that published in 1990. ‘The fint chapter of the German original, was published slightly inadvance of the rest ofthe book in Payhoanel. Bowrpeng, 1 {4}, Noverber-December, 1929. The fith chapter appeared rately in the next iarue of the same periodical, 2 (1), ‘Fabwary-February, 1930. Two or three extra footnotes were ‘eluded in the edition of 1931 and a new final sentence wat fated to the work. None of these additions appeared in the tater version ofthe English translation. Freud hgd finished The Futwe of ox Iwsin in the autumn of 1927. Dunng the following-two years, chiefly, no doubt, on sgcognt of his ilnen, he tproduced wery Kile. But in the ‘nmer of 1929 he began writing another book, once more om J ecological subject. The first draft was finished by the end of “Jaly; the book was sent to the printers early in November ‘znd was actually published before the end of the year, though Hrcarvied the date 1980" on its tde-page (Jones, 1957, 157-8). ‘The original tie chosen for it by Freud was ‘Das Unplick i ‘dr Kaloe” ‘Unbappinees io Civilization’); but ‘Unghie was Inter altered to Usdehage’—a word for which it was dificult to Seeeeeeeeaeetas —_— 6 CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS ‘choose an English equivalent, though the French ‘malaise ‘might have served. Freud suggested ‘Man's Discomfort in Ginitation’ in. a letter to his tranalator, Mes. Riviere; butit was the henelf who found the ideal solution ofthe diffculty in the tite that was finally adopted, ‘The main theme of the book—the irremedable anagoniem between the demands of istics andthe retrctonsc eng Mion may be traced back to some of freu's wry cote Prycholgeal wrings. Thuy on May 31 109%, Be wee Flew that ‘ncest antisocial and Cation’ cosas 2 Brora reunion oi (ead, 180 Dra Ny and ¢ Yes later, in a paper on ‘Salty inthe Actoloy at he Nearer (100), he wrote tat we may jay Pod ore Siilinntin responsible Br he spread of neuro’ Necae the, ey waged dos wt em ae tegered represion as beng holy due extn inden Though init Tae Bays (19052) he pole of she Invene relation holding between ilination eal che fee developneat of sway’ (Sundar Ba, 7, 20), eueahere a ‘Re same work he had the lowing comment soe ee ams aginst the sexual instinct that emerge dng i ato Period "One get an impresion tom ceed eden tare Snsrucson of thse dats itn product ef gfuentnn al Aboubt education hat much to-do with it. bat is cig Aeelopment is organically determined and fed by beens and it can occadonaly coat withot any hap ol oe Sducation’ (id, 177°8) ‘The ation of re bing an ‘genic repreion* paving the way to ciilization—a notion that is expanded inthe two long fotos atthe beginning and end of Chaps 1 (ph Wo sod 52 below) — goes back othe sumecary period alter > Flies of Novenber [4 1607, Breud wrote that be had chey “that vornething organic played spurt in repree (Freud, 1950a, Letter 75). He went on, in precy the sense of thes fotnots,tosugesttemnportance ad acre teprenicn ofthe adoption ofan psght carage ad the mpactecar ot sell by sight athe dominant sense As ea hist ort fame Hen occurs in alter of January Ll, 1897 id Lae 55). Tn Fred's published waltigs the only mentons of tee ‘ess Bere the reenton sees to Bem hot Page fa EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 7 ‘Rat Man’ analyse (9004), Stnderd Ed, 1, 267-8 and a lt thorter one in the sesond paper on the prychology af lve {isi2d Ih, 1,16, In paral, no sigs te expe, {Sterna erg of liation sto odin what ny fs lengat of Fred's eater ducnatons of the subject bs paper tn “Civilized” Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Mine? (loons) which ves the imprenion of the newicions of (Setistin as soeting noose fom win. But indeed no cea evatation ofthe part plyed in these rtictons by inter] and extemal ftencs aod of thelr Teipocl ets war possble i Fred inversgaion of ep Foyt ha el him hie opts fhe perc 8 Wo’enga fom the indvidanly case objection Tex Tecan of ts that such a lange part of the preent ork (Specially in Chapters VIL and Vil) i concerned with the etic esplratin and carifeaton ofthe natae of these of gus ad tat Freed (on pI declares bis "nenton feprstthe ene of uit the ost mporeant problem ite Scvlopient cfcsto’ Ang this ro the ground foe theteenad major deine ofthis wok (hough ner of tem isin ct a ede inc) the destructive lint ee ington orn aon sets dem ieee Bw eee sa ad ct tn ae i Ferrin ta cee ron cate me et rae te gen Ft ing Siem wo ie Eo te Te ea eh a cee ser of eel rine ha bere nSen ©) ot a ro ea coin oe ais ie canna era anak ae eee Fe et Norn pen ee ere ye a rg eer deere oor me i emal fe ie ct mes i ete 2 The mec touched on fn many other woes, among which may seit pro ie Races ce ra ‘Sioned Bd, 19,210 the int pages of The Ft of Mason 927), "and the last paragraphs of Why War? (19330), 8 CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS stage’ (ibid, 199m). The independent sources indicated were to be traced to the seitpreservative instincts, This pasage wat altered in the edition of 1918, where it was stated that ‘the impulse of crucity arises from the inatinct for maitery’ and the phrase about its being ‘independent of sexuality’ was omitted. But already, in 1908, in the course of combating. Adler's theories, Freud had made a much more sweeping pronounce. ‘ent, I Section T of the third chapter ofthe ‘Lite Hans” case history (19094), Freud wrote: ‘T cannot bring myself to assume the existence of a special aggressive instint alongside of the ‘familiar intines of selfpreservation and of sez, and on an ‘equal footing with them’ (ibid, 10, 140). The reluctance to accept an aggrestive instinct independent of the libido was ‘sisted by the hypotheris of narcissism. Impulses of aggresive ‘et, and of hatred too, had from the first seemed to belong to the selfpreservative instinct, and, since this was now submusned under the libido, no independent aggrestve instinct was called 4 And this was 0 in spite ofthe bipolarty of object relations, ‘of the frequent admixtures of love and hate, and of the ‘origin of hate itv (See ‘Instincts and their Viciuieuder (19180), Standard Ed, 14, 138-9.) Te was not until Freud's hypothesis of a ‘death instinct” that a truly independent ‘sggresive instinct came into view in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (19209). (See, in particular, Chapter VI, ibid, 18, 52-8) But ‘itisto be remarked that even there, and in Freud's later writings (Gor instance, in Chapter TV of The Ego and the 1d), the aggree sive imntint was sill something secondary, derived from the primary seledestracive death instinct. This i still true of the ‘Present work, even though here the stress ie much more upon ‘the death instinc’s manifestations eutoards; and iti also true of ‘the farther discusions ofthe problem in the later part of Lectore XXCKIT of the New Intrductry Lectures (19894), and at more than one point in the posthumously publiabed Oxdlise of sche nabs (19404 [1938}). It is nevertheless tempting %0 quote ‘couple of tentences from a letter written by Freud on May 27, hte nb te Sco a eres earch Siaie ae gore an eee Eager @Acnnke dates ae ae rohit ep gee ant ‘Sua the oon tothe ring Seward te ido Sooveeene mine Ganvianwiets antes pee rere a Soper eee Sear Saetiteaee cet aie reece ag eegratancemn men carer ne Te will thus be obvious that Cisilization and its Dixontets isa work Whose interest ranges far beyond sociology. Considerable portions ofthe earlier (1930) translation ofthis work were included in Rickman's Ciliatien, Wer and Death Selections from Three Works by Signand Fred (1939, 26-81) Yeas vey nly alowed wo repre it Bee. The woe geil cc te td ns ifr warlton) Append A FR Ste fees eno fey eth Tarte ad 5S; cer by Frew in Seton VE of he paper writen sont ‘lee ts eter, "Asalus Temiaie and faterauabie 9374). aera | | | CIVILIZATION AND I'f§ DISCONTENTS 1 Tris imposible to exape the impreion that people commonly tie ae sanards of measurement that they sek power, ‘Secon and wealth for themaelves and admire temn in Oma, tod hat they andrei wat oft vale in i Aad Yet in making any general jodgement ofthis srt, we are in {danger of forgetting how variegated the human workd and its ‘mental fe are. There are a few men fiom whom their coo temporaie donot witihold admiration although ther great ‘etre on ateibuts and achievements whieh ae completly foreign to the alma and ideal ofthe muldeide. One might Eye irae Mn aah ale Which appreciates thee great men, while the large Cares nothing for them. But things ace probably not a2 1s that, thanks to the dicrepancis berween people's ad their ations, and wo the diversi oftheir wishful ‘One of these cxcepional few cals himse my fiend ia bis Jeers to me T had sent him my small bok sha eat religion 25 an iludon,* and he answered that he endrey agreed with ‘my judgement upon religion, but that he was sorry Thad not Propelyappredated the true source of religious leatmente "Tas he sys, cons in a pecllar fling, which he hinwelf is never without, which he finds confirmed by many ethers aid irhich be may suppose is present in milliocs of people: Tis feeling wich he would Uke to call a smaation of ‘ceri, 2 ealng at of something Limitem, unbounded —as it wee, ‘oceanic. This fecling, be adds, isa purely mbjectve fact not an article of faith; #€ brings with itn0 ausorance of peronal Immoraly, bat iia the source ofthe religious energy which seized upon by the various Churches and religious systems, rect by them int particular channels, and doubles ala ° exhausted by them. One may, he thinks, rightly call oneself felgous on the ground of this oceanic feling alone, even it ‘one rejects every belief and every iasion. ‘The views expressed by the friend whom I so much honour, [The Pate of Blaioa (19250). errreeeeeeee 12 CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS and who himself once praised the magic of illusion in a poem,} caused me no small difficlty. Y cannot discover ths “oceanic? feeling in myaelf. Tt is not easy to deal scientifically with feelings. ‘One can attempt to describe their physiological signs. Where ‘his is not poesible—and Tam afraid thatthe oceanic fecling too will defy this kind of characterization —nothing remains but to fall back on the ideational content which is most readily associated with the feeling. If T have understood my friend rightly, he means the same thing by i as the consolation offered by an original and somewhat eccentric dramatist to his hero who is facing a slZinflicted death. “We cannot fall out of this world,’ * That is to say, itis a feling ofan indisoluble bond, of being one with the external world as a whole- I may remark that to me this seems something rather in the nature of an intellectual perception, which is not, it ie true, without an accompanying feling-tone, but only such as would be present with any other act of thought of equal range. From my own experience T could not convince myself of the primary nature of such a feling. But this giver me no right to deny that it does i fact occur in other people. The only question fs whether iti being correctly interpreted and whether it ought to be regarded. 1s the fons erigo of the whole need for religion. T have nothing to suggest which could have a tecisive in- ‘uence on the solution of this problem. The idea of men's receiving an intimation of their connection with the world around them through an immediate feeling which is from the futet directed co that purpose sounds so strange and fits in 10 badly with the fabric of cur prychology that one is justified in attempting to discover a psycho-analytic—that i, @ genetic ‘explanation of such a feeling. The following line of thought sugges its Normally, there is nothing of which we are more certain than the feling of ourself, of our own ego.” This eo 2 Lael adie 1991] Lilli [1919}-—Since the publication of is wo oak Zt dt Remar (1849) and Le i'r ikon (1920), T nee no longer hide the fact thatthe end spoken tin he {ents Romain Rolland. [Romain Reland had wten to Freud about fhe ‘oceanic fetng’ In leer of Daceber 5, 1927, very soon afer he Publletion of The Fate of Hin) * Ohsitian Ditch Grabbe [1801°96), Hamil: ‘fa, aus der Welt ‘erden wir nicht allen, Wir ad cama darn” Faded, we shall hot ‘Out of this world. We ae a i cace and for al") '* [Some remarks on Freud's use of the teres ‘eget and ‘self will be aavitization AND ITS DISCONTENTS 15 appear tow armomething atonomost and unitary, mashed ltcy from everyting ee. That such a0 appearance deep, and hat on the conrary the ego contaued im ward, without a27 sharp delimitation igo an encoseos Imetal eny which we dedgaate a the id and for wich it sor ed of ah a dane fade by evan rearch, which shoud sl have mich more (ig soa io toe ta ute a nyt, the eg seco mana et ae she Tne of demarcation There only one nately a trea ate but nt one that cam he sigma ax pac Iogieat~in which docs aot do thi tthe ight of big fa “love the boundary between ego and object threatens to melt vey. Agtotal he evidence obi sen ran wane ove declares that‘ and ou are one, ands repre to behave oe ee fc What pore un is phytase! fee, aarmal]feneton mun alo, of coum, lable ob darted by pathologie! proces’ Palo he tmade ts agate wid grew umber of ates wea te Souoday ns Betesn the oa he eternal wed Become ceria rin hich they te actualy dra incre ‘There are caus in whch parts of persis wn body even porn this own mental ish poerpony though tad Ege appear alent him and tno loging oh ee the ccs wh oe wel thing tht leary xgiaate ns own ego ada ought tedaowlged by Ths even the elng of or om got tet to dtrbanct aod the Bounds ofthe gear sot oman Further reflection tle ut chat thea’ egoeling cannot have heen the tame fom the begining. Team hy Roe through «proce of development hc canot, of couse, be Akmontated but which admis of ing contrvcted with 2s degre of probably. An nt a he bree doce ots et fad he Bir Intodseson to Th Hr and he 1 (208, Sides?) TI Boat Seon I of he Seer ca bry (910, PCE the any wring on the wpe sod go: Te ney ei oo te , fang eng fmt Trt pero Suge Begs Seetacet tate (015) w lcm cots 5 ak 14 CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS distinguish his ego from the external world asthe souree of the ‘sensations fowing in upon hima, He gradually learns to do 9, in responte to various promptings.t He must be very strongly imprest by the fact that some sources of excitation, which be will later recognize as his own bodily ergans, can provide him with sensations at any moment, whereas other sources evade ‘him fom time to time—among them what he desires most of all, kis mother’s breast—and only reappear at a result of his screaming for help. In this way there is forthe frst time set over against the ego an ‘objec’ inthe form of something which exists ‘outside’ and which is only force to appear by a special action,* [A further incentive to 2 disengagement of the ego from the {general mass of sensations—that is, to the recognition of an ‘outside’, an external world—is provided by the frequent, ‘manifold and unavoidable sensations of pain and unpleasure the removal and avoidance of which is enjoined by the pleasure principle, in the exercise of its unrestricted domination, A. tendency arises to separate from the ego everything that ean become a source of such unpleasure, to throw it outade and to ‘create a pute pleasure-ego which is confronted by astrange and ‘threatening ‘outside, The boundaries ofthis primitive pleasure- ‘ego cannot escape rectification through experience, Some ofthe things that one is unwilling to give up, because they give pleasure, are nevertheless not ego but objec; and come suffer- ‘ngs that one secks to expel turn out to be ineparable from the ‘go in virtue of their intemal origin. One comes to learn a procedure by which, through a deliberate direction of one's sensory activities and through suitable muscular action, one can differentiate between what is internal-—what belongs to the eg0 ‘and what is external—what emanates from the outer wor. In this way one makes the frst step towards the introduction of| ‘the reality principle which is o dominate future development! 2 Un dhs paragraph Freud was going over fait ground He had

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