Library · Civilization and Its Discontents

Sigmund Freud

Civilization and Its Discontents

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Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1930) is his most influential work of social and cultural theory. Written in the shadow of the First World War, it argues that civilization is built upon the renunciation of instinct, so that a permanent tension exists between the individual's drives—above all sexuality and aggression—and the demands of communal life. Freud traces the origin of guilt to this conflict and closes by asking whether humanity, armed with new powers of destruction, can master its own aggressive nature. The translation is Joan Riviere's of 1930.

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