Civilization and Its DiscontentsWritten in the decade before Freud's death, Civilization and Its Discontents may be his most famous and most brilliant work. It has been praised, dissected, lambasted, interpreted, and reinterpreted. Originally published in 1930, it seeks to answer several questions fundamental to human society and its organization: What influences led to the creation of civilization? Why and how did it come to be? What determines civilization's trajectory? Freud's theories on the effect of the knowledge of death on human existence and the birth of art are central to his work. Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only Norton's Standard Edition, under the general editorship of James Strachey, was authorized by Freud himself. This new edition includes both an introduction by the renowned cultural critic and writer Christopher Hitchens as well as Peter Gay's classic biographical note on Freud. |
Contents
Introduction by Christopher Hitchens | 9 |
A Brief Life by Peter Gay | 151 |
Translators Note by James Strachey | 169 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieved aggressive instinct aim-inhibited anal erotism anxiety beauty become called Christopher Hitchens Civiliza conscience cultural development death instinct demands destruction development of civilization Discontents Dreams economic ego-feeling enjoyment Ernest Jones Eros ethical existence external world fact father fear feeling forces Freud further happiness hostility human civilization idea Illusion 1927c inclination to aggression individual influence instinctual renunciation J. G. Ballard Jung Karl Abraham kind later libidinal libido man's mankind means ment mental mind narcissism nature neighbour ness neurosis object Oedipus complex one's oneself organism original Otto Rank path perhaps pleasure principle possible primal primitive psychical psychoanalysis psychological reality relation relationships religion religious remorse renunciation of instinct repression restrictions Sandor Ferenczi satisfaction seems sense of guilt Servian wall sexual SIGMUND FREUD species Standard struggle suffering super-ego theory things tion Totem and Taboo Trans unconscious unpleasure Vienna Viennese