Civilization and Its Discontents

Reprint of the 1930 American edition. In this seminal book Sigmund Freud enumerates the fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. The primary friction stems from the individuals quest for instinctual freedom and civilizations contrary demand for conformity and instinctual repression. Many of humankinds 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.