Civilization and Its Discontents
Freud begins from the “oceanic feeling” that his friend Romain Rolland had proposed as the source of religion, and traces it instead to an early stage of the ego. He then asks why civilization, built to protect people from nature and from one another, leaves them so unhappy, and answers that it demands the renunciation of sexual and above all aggressive drives, which the super-ego turns back against the self as a sense of guilt.
Understanding the text
Written in the summer of 1929 and published in Vienna by the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag with the date 1930, the essay continues The Future of an Illusion of 1927, which had prompted Rolland’s letter. Its working title spoke of unhappiness rather than unease; Joan Riviere’s English version of 1930 gave it the title Civilization and Its Discontents.
Key points
- 01
Techniques of living
Intoxication, withdrawal from the world, sublimation in work and art, and love are reviewed as ways of avoiding suffering, none of which can be relied on for everyone.
- 02
Love thy neighbour
Freud treats the commandment as proof of how strong human aggression is, since civilization must demand what runs most against the original nature of human beings.
- 03
Guilt as the price of culture
Each renunciation increases the severity of conscience, so that the sense of guilt becomes, in Freud’s words, the most important problem in the development of civilization.
Explore the ideas in depth
Civilization, aggression and guilt
Trace the argument of Civilization and Its Discontents from the oceanic feeling to aggression, the super-ego and the sense of guilt as the price of culture.
Situating the text
Written in the summer of 1929 and published in Vienna by the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag with the date 1930, the essay continues The Future of an Illusion of 1927, which had prompted Rolland’s letter. Its working title spoke of unhappiness rather than unease; Joan Riviere’s English version of 1930 gave it the title Civilization and Its Discontents. Freud begins from the “oceanic feeling” that his friend Romain Rolland had proposed as the source of religion, and traces it instead to an early stage of the ego. He then asks why civilization, built to protect people from nature and from one another, leaves them so unhappy, and answers that it demands the renunciation of sexual and above all aggressive drives, which the super-ego turns back against the self as a sense of guilt.
Following the arguments
Techniques of living : Intoxication, withdrawal from the world, sublimation in work and art, and love are reviewed as ways of avoiding suffering, none of which can be relied on for everyone. Love thy neighbour : Freud treats the commandment as proof of how strong human aggression is, since civilization must demand what runs most against the original nature of human beings. Guilt as the price of culture : Each renunciation increases the severity of conscience, so that the sense of guilt becomes, in Freud’s words, the most important problem in the development of civilization.
Continuing the reading
The essay is short: read chapters I and II on religion and happiness, V and VI on aggression and the death drive, then VII and VIII on guilt, noting the closing sentence added in 1931. Written in the summer of 1929 and published in Vienna by the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag with the date 1930, the essay continues The Future of an Illusion of 1927, which had prompted Rolland’s letter. Its working title spoke of unhappiness rather than unease; Joan Riviere’s English version of 1930 gave it the title Civilization and Its Discontents.
Questions to carry into your reading
- Why does Freud refuse to make the oceanic feeling the source of religious need?
- How can renouncing aggression make conscience harsher rather than gentler?
Freud presents civilization as a necessary but costly bargain, in which security is paid for with renounced drives and a guilt that is often unconscious.
How to read it
The essay is short: read chapters I and II on religion and happiness, V and VI on aggression and the death drive, then VII and VIII on guilt, noting the closing sentence added in 1931.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method →