freud - is civilisation problematic :: essays research papers

DOES FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PSYCHE TURN CIVILIZED EXISTENCE INTO SOMETHING PROBLEMATIC? The question I have chosen is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Does Freud’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the psyche turn civilized existence into something problematic?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This question is essentially asking whether what Freud believes about the human psyche (or mind) contradict a belief in an harmonious society, and therefore is civilised existence essentially nothing but a dilemma.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will attempt to answer this question by drawing on what Freud postulated about the psychical. This will then be used to explain why the ‘human psyche’ is on a constant quest for ‘the whole’, or satisfaction, and how this only leads only to constant discontent and an unconscious drive for self-destruction, known as the ‘death instinct.’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Firstly, Freud proposed many theories about the psyche, the basis of which being the segmenting of the psychical into three sections: the conscious, the unconscious and the preconscious. The conscious is the section of the mind containing thoughts that we are aware of. Conscious experiences can be thought about rationally as well as verbalised. The unconscious is the section of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness, and has been described as a ‘dump box’ for thoughts and emotions relating to hurt, conflict and anxiety. Freud argues that these thoughts and emotions have not disappeared but that they are constantly, unconsciously, influencing what we do and the decisions we make. And finally, the preconscious is where ordinary memory is stored. Thoughts and feelings stored here are neither conscious nor unconscious, however, they are capable of becoming conscious at any time . This division is the foundation of psychoanalysis, and understanding its complexities is necessary when one is to comprehend mental pathological processes. In Freud’s analysis of civilisation, he postulated that civilisation has two characteristics, which are inter-dependent upon one another. As stated by Freud in The Future of an Illusion, civilisation ‘includes on the one hand all the knowledge and capacity that men have acquired in order to control the forces of nature and extract its wealth for the satisfaction of human needs, and, on the other hand, all the regulations necessary in order to adjust the relations of men to one another and especially the distribution of the available wealth.’ In other words, civilisation is characterised by the knowledge man has gained and used to manipulate the forces of nature with the purpose of satisfying man’s needs, as well as the regulations which alter man’s interactions with each another and the allocation of wealth.