Sigmund Freud, Das Unbehagen in der Kultur [Civilization and its Discontents]

Scott Brewster (University of Lincoln)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Psychoanalysis

Dates

First circulation or publication 1930

Places

Czech Republic (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

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First English publication in a translation by Joan Riviere by the Hogarth Press and Institute of Pscyho-Analsis, London, and Cape and Smith, NewYork, in 1930.

In an often pessimistic reflection on the conflict between instinctual demands and the restrictions of civilization, Freud discusses the origins of religious feeling, the frustrated desires that underlie social structures, the “economic” costs of renouncing pleasure and the existence of an aggressive instinct entirely independent of the sexual and self-preservational instincts. As with all his work on culture, he postulates a similarity between the libidinal development of the individual and the development of social formations. The process of civilization mirrors the maturation of the individual, with early sources of

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1552 words

Citation: Brewster, Scott. "Das Unbehagen in der Kultur". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5736, accessed 25 November 2024.]