Sigmund Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

In chapter V of Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud addresses two issues: the relations between individuals in a civilized society and the nature of the individual in a civilized society. One of the demands placed upon the individual in a civilized society is the universal proscription described in Christian parlance as “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Freud believes that it is unreasonable for an individual to love a neighbor who is either unknown or unworthy. He claims that the neighbor (stranger) is not only unworthy of love but “has more claim to my hostility and even my hatred.” As the neighbor feels the same way, Freud believes that this mutual animosity or indifference should lead to a restatement of the commandment. It should read: “Love thy neighbor as thy neighbor loves thee.” Freud dismisses a second commandment with similar disdain. To him, the maxim “Love thine enemies” is equally incomprehensible.

At the core of Freud's argument is his belief “that men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked.” In fact, “they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness.” This aggressiveness also reveals “man as a savage beast to whom consideration towards his own kind is something alien.” He cites the “horrors of the recent World War” (World War I) as an historical example of the savagery of man. It is this aggression and savagery that perpetually threatens civilized society with disintegration. Civilization must use its “utmost efforts” to establish limits to man's “aggressive instincts” and to hold them in check. Still, Freud recognizes that civilization has been unable to curb man's instinctual appetites. “Instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests.”

Freud observes that the Communists believe that private property corrupts man and is responsible for aggressive instinctual tendencies. Communists argue that the abolition of private property would precipitate the end to ill will and hostility among men, as all would benefit from holding property in common. He does not address the economics of Communism, but he does argue that “the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion.” Freud believes that man's aggressiveness predated the advent of private property and that the abolition of private property would alter nothing in the nature of instinctual aggressiveness.

Although Freud acknowledges that people can be bound together in a community through love, it can happen only if there is a sufficient number outside the community on whom the members can focus their hate and aggression. When the apostle Paul founded Christianity on love, the “inevitable consequence” to those who remained outside the Christian community was “extreme intolerance.” The Jewish people, Freud believes, have provided European Christians a remarkable service in this regard. Dispersed throughout Europe since the time of the early Roman Empire, the Jews have long been the target of hate and aggression. Freud laments: “Unfortunately all the massacres of the Jews in the Middle Ages did not suffice to make that period more peaceful and secure for their Christian fellows.”

Freud concludes that man cannot be happy in a civilized society because it compels him to stifle his most basic instincts, the two most powerful of which are sex and violence. However, he believes that if man were given his instinctual freedom in a primal state, it would be short-lived and influenced by other factors, such as position in the primal family. “Civilized man has exchanged a portion of his possibilities of happiness [that is, the exercise his instincts] for a portion of security.” Civilization is security for many in exchange for instinctual freedom for a few.

Change is possible through a critique of the existing civilization. Through criticism, individuals may come to realize that there are aspects of civilization that cannot be reformed. Civilization involves “restricting the instincts”; beyond that, there exists the danger of “the psychological poverty of groups.” In this situation, the members of the group identify with each other, and the natural leaders of the group are either ignored or not given the leadership role they deserve. Freud believes that the United States falls into this group. “The present cultural state of America would give us a good opportunity for studying the damage to civilization which is thus to be feared.” With that cryptic statement, he declines to continue the analysis of American culture.