Civilization by Sigmund Freud - Essay Example

Socrates and Freud Part Commentary on Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents by Socrates Sigmund Freud wrote and published his book, Civilization and Its Discontents in the year 1929. This took place immediately before his death. This is a commentary of his Civilization and its Discontents, which creates the context about his unenthusiastic aspect of non-resolvable worry between human being and civilization. Part 1 of his book presents his sociological appliance of psychoanalysis. Freud’s religion analysis as a combined neurosis that holds up civilization, functions as a combined super personality (Freud 27). I agree with Freud’s religious view whereby he argues that it is like a mankind’s resistance against helplessness feelings, a defense that retains human being immature and rely on an elusive God. The conflict between the nature and characteristic of human beings and civilization restrictions can be found in the early psychological writings of Freud. Freud’s early writing about stages of psychosexual development comprised of destructive of aggressive forces, which are libido-bound in the sadism form (anal, oral, and urethral). Freud, however, measured aggression as portion of self-preservative characters when it resulted from response to frustrating thing or after the occurrence of a conflict between hunger (ego instincts) and love (object instincts). In Civilization and Its Contents, he describes (I) the conflicts that occur between individuals’ social rules and sexual argues that helps them to endure, and (ii) Thanatos, which is a key self-destructive instinct of death, which has overwhelming social consequences when directed outwards. Genocide, violence, and killings are all enough proof of the theory of Freud that, human beings are not “good”. Freud argues that it is not easy to give an answer to the very question, “what is the function of the life of human being” that most people understand that human beings only survive happily. Freud catalogues the way human beings avoid pain and seek pleasure, such as intoxicating, sublimating libido into the job, and displacing libido onto the beauty enjoyment (Parisi 67). According to Freud, civilization aids in helping human beings against nature, regulating human beings’ relationships, and encouraging their higher mental actions (scientific, intellectual, as well as artistic success). Self-preservative characteristics and Eros contribute towards civilization, as human beings can strive better through working hand in hand. In addition, sexual love, which is the prototype of happiness, strengthen families, couples, and group relationships. However, restricting sexual civilization will result in human beings’ “discontent”. Additionally, civilization provides human beings with quality securing through implementation of law and orders, which are mutually accepted upon social principles, although this always at a high cost. Freud understands how challenging it is for human beings to renounce their contentment of violence and notices that people provide an outlet for this by sanctioning violence against intruders. Generally, it is always easy to combine together a significant number of individuals in love. However, this only happens when there are other individuals available to accept the demonstrations of their ferociousness. Freud calls this a tendency of feuding against bordering communities as well as territories (Freud 33). He refers this to ‘a vanity of small dissimilarities’. Other examples of this include anti-Semitism and Racism. Freud views aggression as one of the parts making up man’s instinctual nature that is one of the greatest threats to civilization. Civilization refers to the process in the Eros service, whose main purpose is uniting human beings, families, as well as nations to form a single great unity of humankind. Eros maintains conservation of all living species by reproduction. Therefore, civilization is an easily broken cooperation solution in the effort between death and Eros, between destruction and life instincts. He shows an original and profound understanding of the nature of human beings. By the time he was writing the book, Civilization and Its Discontents, he was in the phase of post enlightenment (Freud 45). Freud dares to go beyond the necessary ideals of growth and development, to concentrate with the unknown or possibly unwelcoming describing the story of human nature. Another thing that I could agree with Freud is man’s concept as essentially fallible. Jesus stresses the intrinsic fact that the mortality of man influences him to make mistakes. Human beings will naturally live to make mistakes because they are not perfect beings. This resembles my own understanding about the consciousness of human beings, which determines their characters. This unconsciousness has been determining the foundation of man’s mental activities since his creation ((Parisi 69). However, Jesus revealed to us that it only through pure salvation that God can forgive our sins. Jesus requests us to do only the good things not only for public benefit but also to the benefit of ourselves. Part 2: Freud’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount The ethical teachings of Jesus Christ has always been challenging and inspiring Christians for many years. For anyone who earnestly and piously considers the Sermon on the Mount, the way we read in the Bible according to the book of Mathew, he or she will find the perfect standards of the life of Christians. Imparted by a true teacher “Jesus Christ” the Sermon on the Mount clarifies the heavenly values of justice that guide Christians follow the way of God. In the current generation, the lessons learned from the beatitudes are slowly fading from the memories of the Christians. For instance, modern Christians have a tendency of projecting the beatitudes as a form of social reforms that lifts both the persecuted and the poor and emphasizing peace in the world (Stott 45). However, the beatitudes are supposed to be directed inwards. The teachings of the modern priests provide a theological context that enables Christians to fully understand the role of the Sermon on the Mount. According to the context of the bible, one can argue that the Sermon on the Mount is a new form of Torah that Jesus brought to his followers. In addition, one can also understand the mountain sermon as a new form of the covenant, which God set with Israelites as the start of Jesus establishing the God’s Kingdom (Kendall 34). Jesus as the leader who led the people of God was spreading the good news of healing and miracles, which he used to perform earlier as seen in the book of Matthew. During the mountain sermon, Jesus spoke to his followers, the Israelites, as the first bearers of his promise. However, through giving them the Torah, this opened their minds, in order to establish a new family of the Almighty coming from the Gentiles and the Israelites (Stott 48). Therefore, viewing the mountain sermon like a preview of Christians who live in the God’s Kingdom helps us to discover the inner structure of the Sermon on the Mount. It thus helps in recognizing the meaning of the sayings of Jesus Christ during the sermon: ‘I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and Scribes, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5:20)”. Christians should understand that the Sermon on the Mount presents all that entails for the relationship between God and a Christian, which contrasts the behaviour of Christians and those of their opponents; Pharisees and Scribes. The Sermon on the Mount can also be viewed as a handbook for priests to help them teach, preach, and worship. Therefore, I recommend that, Christians should follow the teachings of Jesus, which he emphasized during the mountain sermon since this introduced the God’s Kingdom. The sermon on Mount portrays how the early Christians committed themselves to the teachings of Jesus. In fact, the mountain sermon ends with an observation of the crowds being astounded at the Jesus’ teachings. The sermon also had led to the formation of early catechism of Christian that was used to prepare Christian converts on how to live their new form of life in the society of believers (Kendall 41). Despite the ecclesial provenance of the Sermon on the Mount, its structure and the content aim at portraying a trustworthy discipleship of Christian. After an explanation of the introduction of the ministry of healing of Jesus, the scene presents him climbing the mountain and somberly sitting down in order to address the crowds and his disciples. At the begging of the sermon, Jesus Christ teaches the followers about the beatitudes and asserts that they should live a more righteous life than their opponents, the Pharisees and Scribes. By going through the Sermon on the Mount, Christians should always live a righteous life for them to be able to enter the heavenly kingdom (Stott 56). Lastly, from what the Sermon portrays to us, we should understand that it was planning to teach the Christians the ways, which they should follow. The entire content of sermon indicates that Christians should live a life is accepted by God. This is because it is only through living a righteous life that he or she can be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom (Kendall 47). The ethical teachings of Jesus Christ has always been challenging and inspiring Christians for many years. According to the context of the bible, one can argue that the Sermon on the Mount is a new form of Torah that Jesus brought to his followers. Works cited Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print. Kendall, Dr R.T. Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids: Baker Pub. Group, 2011. Print Parisi, Thomas. Civilization and its Discontents: An anthropology for the future. New York: Twayne, 2009. Print. Stott, John R. W. Sermon on the Mount: 12 Studies for Individuals or Groups. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 2010. Print. Read More