Posted by Will on March 24, 19101 at 03:14:19:

In Reply to: Any ideas...? posted by Wondering on March 11, 19101 at 14:09:35:

Hi there...I'm a Psychology student who is very interested in Psychoysis. In response to your posting....and I am not sure if this will be of any istance to you....but having read *Civilization and it's Discontents* Freud alludes to a state of happiness in civilization as arising from the sublimation of both the ego-preservative instincts.....Thanatos (death Instinct) and Eros (..or life Instinct).. ....He suggested that humans could never achieve absolute happiness(presuming that the majority develop a stable conscience (super-ego). Yet even those who lack conscience (super-ego) as in the sociopath, have a deficient emotional life...and lack the capacity for pleasure or emotive expression generally. Therefore, as a result of this narcissistic injury to humans....we could only sublimate our instinctual pleasure and make it partial pleasure. He therefore looked upon *Happiness* in civilization as being only partial. Afterall...it is hard to imagine how he could have viewed civilization as achieving much happiness under the description he gave to it in *Civilization and It's Discontents*.....He spoke of Civilization as the renunciation of Instincts....ie. the taboo and the ual restrictiveness of Religion.

PS, I doubt I will ever see a genuinely happy face in church

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup