Civilization's Discontent

"Civilization and Its Discontent", written almost 80 years ago (in 1929) by Sigmund Freud.

This is the first book by Freud that I've read. The basic idea in this book is the understanding of culture as a tool to neutralize aggression. But seriously, I can't really grasp his arguments... yet... so maybe I should start reading his first books and go down chronologically, and maybe then I would get a better idea of what he was advocating..

I got interested in Freud's theories after watching a 2002 BBS documentary, "The Century of the Self" where according to the director of this documentary, Adam Curtis, ".. is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy."

There are several quotes that I found to be quite interesting and thought-provoking in this book..


"One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be 'happy' is not included in the plan of 'Creation'."

"The question of the purpose of human life has been raised countless times; it has never received a satisfactory answer and perhaps does not admit of one."

"Civilization, therefore, obtains mastery over the individual's dangerous desire for aggression by weakening and disarming it and by setting up an agency within him to watch over it, like a garrison in a conquered city."

“It regards reality as the sole enemy and as the source of all suffering, with which it is impossible to live, so that one must break off all relations with it if one is to be in any way happy. The hermit turns his back on the world and will have no truck with it. But one can do more than that; one can try to re-create the world, to build up in its stead another world in which its most unbearable features are eliminated and replaced by others that are in conformity with one‘s own wishes. But whoever, in desperate defiance, sets out upon this path to happi­ness will as a rule attain nothing. Reality is too strong for him. He becomes a madman, who for the most part finds no one to help him in carrying through his delusion. It is asserted, how­ever, that each one of us behaves in some respect like a paranoiac, corrects some aspect of the world which is unbear­able to him by the construction of a wish and introduces this delusion into reality. A special importance attaches to the case in which this attempt to procure a certainty of happiness and a protection against suffering through a delusional remolding of reality is made by a considerable number of people in common. The religions of mankind must be classed among the mass­-delusions of this kind. No one, needless to say, who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as such.”

There are frequent mentioning of 'ego', 'super-ego', 'death drive', 'death instinct', 'sublimation' and many more terms in the book.. which I have problem grasping.. I think I shall re-read this book when I have read and understood Freud's earlier works.. Hopefully the Central Library has all his books..