Comparing Freud s Civilizations And Its Discontents
As aforementioned, Freudian theory links desire to eroticism, and from the outset, this
eroticism is evident in the earliest stages of our childhood, but where is this sexual fixation
derived from? According to the father of psychoanalysis himself, this desire is derived from our
parents as the object of said fixation. Wherein, the child desires to satisfy their sexual desires by
replacing the opposite sex parent. As a rule a father prefers his daughter and a mother her son;
the child reacts to this by wishing, if he is a son, to take his father s place, and, if she is a
daughter, her mother s. (Freud, 1909). In fact, if there are siblings in the mix this instinctual desire
can even be strong enough to cause jealousy between siblings, because... Show more content on
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The Ego, according to Freud, perpetuates feelings from within us, and as such can be ascribed
certain traits. Firstly, the boundaries of our Ego are not constant; the Ego s central role is to fend
of displeasure from the external world. Wherein, the instinct of self preservation, and similar
constructive and destructive principles are preserved within it. Furthermore, our Ego s do not
necessarily die with us, using Rome as an example; we can see that certain developmental
constructs crafted by our Egos have survived to modern day (i.e., Law). However, it remains that
our Ego s primary purpose is to fend off displeasure, whilst maximizing pleasure; this becomes
known as the pleasure principle. Accordingly, the unsatisfactory tenets of our own mortality, and
the measures we are willing to go to avoid such displeasure are relatively drastic at times. As
displeasure can be brought on by three distinct entities: our own bodies, the external world, and our
relationships with other men. German novelist and poet, Theodore Fontane offers us some
examples, as there are ...three such measures: powerful deflections, which cause us to make light of
our misery; substitutive satisfactions, which diminish it; and intoxicating substances, which make
us insensitive to it. (Freud, 1962). Ultimately, however, despite these coping mechanisms, our
happiness and subsequent desires are ...a question of how much real satisfaction he can expect to
get from the external world, how far he is led to make himself independent of it, and, finally, how
much strength he feels he has for altering the world to suit his wishes (Freud, 1962). Therefore,
according to Freud, desire is all about maximizing the pleasure principle through the principle of
transference. These processes are inherently instinctual, as they are perpetuated through the Ego,
but no
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