Study Guide for the Book Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud

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1 Northern Arizona University From the SelectedWorks of Timothy Thomason 2007 Study Guide for the Book Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud Timothy Thomason, Northern Arizona University Available at:

2 Study Guide for the Book Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud Timothy C. Thomason Abstract The purpose of this paper is to deepen your understanding of Freud s book Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) by presenting a series of questions to guide your study. Chapter I 1. What is meant by Freud s term the oceanic feeling and how does he explain it scientifically? 2. According to Freud, are the boundaries of the ego permeable? Give an example of a situation when the boundary dissolves. Why can that situation be dangerous? 3. Freud does not give you formal definitions of the Pleasure Principle and the Reality Principle, but you can deduce them from the context. What do these principles do? 4. Why does Freud say that our present ego-feeling is a shrunken residue of a much more inclusive feeling? 5. Comment on Freud s analogy between the city of Rome and the mind. Does this idea advance his argument? 6. Does Freud believe that everything we experience is preserved in memory? Relate his ideas on this to the recovered memory controversy.

3 2 7. How does Freud connect religious feeling with the need for a father s protection? 8. Freud compares the "oceanic feeling" to regressive mental states such as hypnotic trance and ecstasy. Are religious feelings different, and if so how? Chapter II 9. Chapter II opens with a tirade against religion. Why does Freud find religion so distasteful? Do you find his argument convincing? Why or why not? 10. What does Freud say about the purpose of life? 11. What are the three possible sources for human unhappiness? 12. What are the implications of Freud's idea that the most intense happiness results from satisfying a forbidden impulse? 13. What is the disadvantage of making love the center of everything? What do you think of his statement that "We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love." 14. What is Freud s objection to intoxicants as a remedy for suffering or lack of pleasure? 15. Read the last paragraph of Chapter II carefully. What does Freud mean when he says that the believer could have spared himself the detour?

4 3 Chapter III 16. Notice Freud s definitions. How does he define civilization? 17. Do you agree with Freud that civilization is actually an impediment to human happiness? How does he define happiness, and how does his definition differ from contemporary definitions of happiness? 18. Why does Freud assert that man has become a prosthetic God?" 19. What is Freud s definition of order? What is the function of beauty, cleanliness, and order in civilization? Chapter IV 20. Do you agree with Freud's analysis of how the family developed in prehistoric times? 21. Freud says the foundation of human life is the compulsion to work and the power of love. Do you agree? Would you add anything to this? 22. Freud says that if we were truly wise we would not base our happiness on our dependence on a love-object, but he says that almost no one actually does this. Critique this idea and relate it to the ideas of cognitive therapy. 23. Freud argues that the kind of love that Carl Rogers later described as "unconditional positive regard" is impossible. In your opinion, who was right? 24. Why does Freud say that "the sexual life of civilized man is seriously disturbed." 25. In a footnote near the end of the chapter Freud says "Man, too, is an animal...."

5 4 Do you agree? Why or why not? Chapter V 26. What is Freud's objection to the injunctions "Thy shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" and "Love thine enemies." Does he make a convincing case? 27. Near the end of the chapter Freud talks about "primitive man" vs. "civilized man." What is the difference? Chapter VI 28. In Chapter VI Freud opposes the death instinct or instinct of destruction to Eros which seeks to combine and expand. The expression of this death instinct is aggression. Freud writes: "Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose it is to combine single human individuals into one great unity, the unity of mankind.but man s natural aggressive instinct, the hostility of each against all and of all against each, opposes this program of civilization. Critique this idea. 29. Freud says there are innate tendencies in mankind toward aggression, destruction, and cruelty. Do you agree? Chapter VII 30. In Chapter VII Freud describes the origin and development of the superego. How does civilization inhibit the aggressiveness that opposes it? Conscience also involves the aggression of the individual against himself. As the individual develops (in analogy to civilization), his aggression is internalized and a portion of the ego develops into the

6 5 superego as if civilization had installed a guard or a police officer in each individual. Small children learn to fear a loss of love if they do not behave and gradually this authority is internalized. Civilization is inextricably bound up with a sense of guilt. Critique this idea. Chapter VIII 31. Freud wrote that "the price of progress in civilization is paid in forfeiting happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt." What are the implications of this idea for the practice of psychoanalysis? 32. Why does Freud think that individual happiness is opposed to unity with the rest of humanity? 33. In what sense is culture neurotic? 34. If humans have an instinct for destruction, and culture is only partially successful in containing this instinct, what is the long-term prognosis for humanity? 35. Take a moment to look at your notes and then answer the following: A. What is your favorite passage or insight from Civilization and its Discontents? B. What is your least favorite passage or the least convincing insight? 36. What did you learn from reading the book? Reference Freud, S. (1989). Civilization and its discontents. Translated and edited by James Strachey. NY: W. W. Norton. [Originally published in 1930].