Civilization and Its Discontents - Softcover

Freud, Sigmund

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614279845 ISBN 13: 9781614279846

Publisher: Martino Fine Books, 2016

Synopsis

2016 Reprint of the American Edition of 1930. In this seminal book, Sigmund Freud enumerates the fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. The primary friction stems from the individual's quest for instinctual freedom and civilization's contrary demand for conformity and instinctual repression. Many of humankind's primitive instincts (for example, the desire to kill and the insatiable craving for sexual gratification) are clearly harmful to the well-being of a human community. As a result, civilization creates laws that prohibit killing, rape, and adultery, and it implements severe punishments if such commandments are broken. This process, argues Freud, is an inherent quality of civilization that instills perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In Civilization and Its Discontents Freud extends and clarifies his analysis of religion; analyzes human unhappiness in contemporary civilization; ratifies the critical importance of the death drive theory; and contemplates the significance of guilt and conscience in everyday life. The result is Freud’s most expansive work, one wherein he discusses mysticism, love, interpretation, narcissism, religion, happiness, technology, beauty, justice, work, the origin of civilization, phylogenetic development, Christianity, the Devil, communism, the sense of guilt, remorse, and ethics. A classic, important, accessible work, Freud reminds us again why we still read and debate his ideas today.

Todd Dufresne’s introduction expands on why, according to the late Freud, psychoanalysis is the key to understanding individual and collective realities or, better yet, collective truths. The Appendices include related writings by Freud, contemporary reviews, and scholarly responses from Marcuse, Rieff, and Ricoeur.

About the Author

Todd Dufresne is Professor of Philosophy at Lakehead University. He has authored several books on Freud including Killing Freud (Continuum), and editions of The Future of an Illusion and Beyond the Pleasure Principle with Broadview Press.

Gregory C. Richter is Professor of German and Linguistics at Truman State University and the translator of many works.

Edition details

• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1614279845
• ISBN 13: 9781614279846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 74