Wherein I examine the basic ideas of Sigmund Freud the World of Psychiatry and Psychology
Updated: 9/17/14 Freud Ambivalence? Civilization vs. Pleasure?
Possibly the most influencial voice in the modern world, his ideas and their everyday impact upon the average indivdual, and upon culture and society is seldom looked at.
The Freud we see in practice today is mostly at the individual psychological level and pills, not the "talking cure" he created.
The latter, in my view is inadequate. We want to know how Freud himself viewed the social and cultural impacts, and how his views have, on this level been actually applied and with what effect.
From Shakespeare on writers have taken essentially psychological themes and made them into plays, books, themes. After all, Shakespeare made essentially disturbed characters into icons. We want to know how and why.
"-- Freud himself represents a profoundly pessimistic point of view in this treatise. He transfers the intra-psychic conflict (between ego and id; pleasure principle and reality principle; unconscious and conscious mind; etc.) that he had analyzed in his psychoanalytical writings over to the domain of human civilization."
"Freud shares in a general cultural pessimism, or anti-modernism, a kind of skepticism about the accomplishments of civilization, that is typical of this period."
"-- This text sets the stage for Civilization insofar as it marks a first extension of a psychoanalytic problematic into the general sphere of shared culture."
"-- We thus learn to renounce desires or demands that cannot be met, since this causes us less displeasure than giving in to the desire and having it left unsatisfied."
"V. Civilization as a Source of Our Unhappiness, Our Malaise or Discontent
Paradox: Civilization, although its purpose would seem to be amelioration of human misery and suffering, is actually partially responsible for that suffering, according to Freud. This explains our subliminal hostility toward civilization."
9/17/14
Now what do we make of this dilemma Freud gives us? Misery or submitting to the controls of civilization?
But if civilization is also partially responsible for our suffering as well, what do we do with this dilemma? Freud's answer, as is clear from the above, is the personal decision to denounce our drive toward pleasure.
Really?
So the process becomes individual denunciation or forced denounciatiaon, can we say, at the hands of civilization for those who don't conform.
And look at this: original sin becomes the infantile narcissistic love of pleasure.
Really?
Freud neatly sidesteps the problem of civilization and the focus goes back to the individual.
Pity. He lost his nerve.
Civilization is conflict and that conflict is resolved at the expense of the individual without Freud ever having to explain civilizations conflicts at all, other that at the level of the individual. No we want an explanation of conflict at the social and civilization level, not at the individual level, Furthermore, we want to solve the civilization issue at the societal level.
Here, astoundingly, we see Freud questioning, at least for a while, whether or not the accomplishments of civilization are worth the suffering it inficts upon individuals.
What is the solution we ask him and What would a solution look like?
9/18/14
A solution will depend ultimately upon what Freud imagined was at the root of social conflict. Here is one observer's view of Freud's view.
"Freud found that the earliest and most basic of the unconscious self-images which drove social cohesion and conflict derived from the infant’s relations with its mother."
Beyond this is the premise that love of mother and attachment to her creates cohesion in society while at the same time creates a concept of "other" the out group.
So if a population is made to identify with social icons, the king, country, class or family, this attachment can be manipulated to fear, and to dis-value the "other" and to evince hostility toward the "other" or "other" groups.
Now the explanation given here lies within the realm of individual psychology but the mechanism not really examined is how this is manipulated in societies toward the goals of these very same rulers. Is hostility toward the 'other" inevitable in civilizations?
Freud seems to say yes. I don't think it is that simple because we want to know not only how it arises, but how it is maintained across societies down through history, and more importantly do we have counter examples?
That will be our next topic.
Meantime please see my "History of Human Societies" for my ideas on the topic and also "Psychopaths and Institutions for my final forumlations. See what you think.
The upshot is plain to see: Freud's analysis, in fact, only reinforces the excesses of the dark side of civilization he so deplored, and left the onus for all of that on the individual and his or her, internal faults and mechanisms.
His view in fact states that since no individual can avoid having a mother, therefore, her or she is prone to mental illness? Is that what we are to conclude?
Drawing back we see Freud's attitude toward sex, pleasure, motherhood and the like are Victorian in broad outline and not as "modern" as some think.
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