Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche both addressed the concept of human nature and of the society in which human nature are bound by. However due to their different approaches on the matter, they formulated totally different theories for each. This paper endeavours to explore their theories behind human nature, the impact of the world they were living in at the time, religion and approaching utopia through Freud's Civilization and its Discontents and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.
Regarding human nature, Freud was reticent in purporting that we are inherently sinful, but rather that we come in this world full of Id. This wild, instinctive foundation is the basis upon which the infrastructure of the human psyche is erected. We are born into a dangerous world and we endeavor to evade pain and secure pleasure. Freud perceives the Id as a product of our evolutionary progress as Darwin outlined it (e.g. natural selection needs a conflict to ensue for staying alive as well as reproduction). So Freud's assessment of human nature is rather cynical, we are fundamentally egotistical self-justifying pursuers of hedonistic satisfactions, which comprises aggression and sex.
Beginning with Id but never relinquishing it, we progress as infant-toddlers to form an Ego by being educated on the divisions that exist between the outside world and us. Afterwards, we also form a Superego as our families and society employ outside reward and punishment schemes to influence us into becoming our own regulatory body. For example, prior to forming a Superego, the initial phase is 'social anxiety' whereby people are influenced by others' opinions on their behavior. (Freud, Sigmund., 1961, p. 85) Freud believed much of his own society was governed through this method. But he also advocates that society must progress past that stage to the internalization of authority, that is,...
Freud Civilization and Its Discontents Humankind strives for happiness, but according to Sigmund Freud, the creation of civilization as a means to further this goal has instead generated unhappiness. In his book Civilization and its Discontents, Freud asserts the happiness of the individual is often sublimated to the need for civilization to establish law and order. People have an instinctual desire for absolute freedom which includes a need to be sexually
And moreover, the virtues that had been "automatically" accorded to Freud over the years -- "clinical acumen, wisdom in human affairs, dedication to his patients and to the truth" -- are now obscured by the skepticism that has come due to the deep questioning and investigation over time (Kramer, 1998, pp. 199-200). That skepticism among scholars has also been brought on by a lack of "accord" between what Freud
Freud's invention, 'psychoanalysis', wherein the patient would be encouraged by the doctor to talk freely about his varied memories and dreams and associations and thoughts, which became an important part of the psychiatric treatment of patients suffering from mental illnesses, in later years, was, when first introduced in the Vienna of the end of the century, openly ridiculed. When Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams' was released, there was a commotion as
Sigmund Freud I have chosen to write my I-search paper about Sigmund Freud, known today as the father of psychoanalysis. He has impacted our society a great deal and this is obvious when you simply open up a psychology textbook. This semester I am taking a psychology course and we talk about him a lot. I have learned, not only through my psychology course, but also through my dad who majored
The personal and scientific environments within which Freud grew up therefore represent his primary influences. A further influence came in the form of physics. The second half of the nineteenth century, during which Freud did most of his important work, saw great advances in physics. According to Thornton, the discovery mostly responsible for this was Helmholz's principle of conservation energy. Helmholz held that the total amount of energy in a
116). By defining these elements, he constructs a safe model that only applies to his people. Still it was this premise of the potential illness found in the Jewish male that shaped "the discourse of psychoanalysis concerning gender and identity. The next step in his revolutionary study came with defining his style of psychology. He believed in determination as a construct. This was defined; as one's action is causally determined
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