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The Dialectic of Civilization 79 THE DIALECTIC OF CIVILIZATION 79 the brothers." 3 They satisfied their aggressive instinct; but the love which they had for the father caused remorse, , created the superego by identification, and thus created the "restrictions which should prevent a repetition of the CHAPTER FOUR deed." 4 Subsequently, man abstains from the deed; but from generation to generation the aggressive impulse re­ The Dialectic of Civilization vives, directed against the father and his successors, and from generation to generation aggression has to be in­ Freud attributes to the sense of guilt a decisive role in the hibited anew: development of civilization; moreover, he establishes a cor­ Every renunciation then becomes a dynamic fount of conscience; relation between progress and increasing guilt feeling. He every fresh abandonment of gratification increases its severity and states his intention" to represent the sense of guilt as the intolerance . every impulse of aggression which we omit to most important problem in the evolution of culture, and gratify is taken over by the super-ego and goes to heighten its aggressiveness (against the ego).5 to convey that the price of progress in civilization is paid in forfeiting happiness through the heightening of the sense The excessive severity of the superego, which takes the wish of guilt." 1 Recurrently Freud emphasizes that, as civiliza­ for the deed and punishes even suppressed aggression, is tion progresses, guilt feeling is "further reinforced," "in­ now explained in terms of the eternal struggle between Eros tensified," is "ever-increasing." 2 The evidence adduced and the death instinct: the aggressive impulse against the by Freud is twofold: first, he derives it analytically from the father (and his social successors) is a derivative of the death theory of instincts, and, second, he finds the theoretical instinct; in "separating" the child from the mother, the analysis corroborated by the great diseases and discontents father also inhibits the death instinct, the Nirvana impulse. of contemporary civilization: an enlarged cycle of wars, He thus does the work of Eros; love, too, operates in the ubiquitous persecution, anti-Semitism, genocide, bigotry, forrnatiorrnfthe superego. The severe father, who as the ­ and the enforcement of " illusions," toil, sickness, and mis­ forbidding representative of Eros subdues the death instinct eryin the midst of growing wealth and knowledge. in the Oedipus conflict, enforces the first" communal" (so­ We have briefly reviewed the prehistory of the sense of. l. cial) relations: his prohibitions create identification among guilt; it has" its origin in the Oedipus complex and was the sons, aim-inhibited love (affection), exogamy, sublima­ acquired when the father was killed by the association of tion. On the basis of renunciation, Eros begins its cultural work of combining life into ever larger units. And as the 1 Civilization and Its Discontents (London: Hogarth Press, 1949), p. 123. 3 Ibid., p. 118. 4 'iu«, p. 120. 5 Ibid., p. 114. 2 Ibid., pp. 120-122. 80 EROS AND CIVILIZATION THE DIALECTIC OF CIVILIZATION 81 father is multiplied, supplemented, and replaced by the au­ tive instincts. And this is precisely what the developed thorities of society, as prohibitions and inhibitions spread, civilization is incapable of doing because it depends for its so do the aggressive impulse and its objects. And with it very existence on extended and intensified regimentation grows,on the part of society, the need for strengthening the and control. The chain of inhibitions and deflections of defenses - the need for reinforcing the sense of guilt: instinctual aims cannot be broken. "Our civilization is, Since culture obeys an inner erotic impulse which bids it bind generally speaking, founded on the suppression of in­ mankind into a closely knit mass, it can achieve this aim only by stincts." 7 means of its vigilance in fomenting an ever-increasing sense of guilt. Civilization is first of all progress in work- that is, work That which began in relation to the father ends in relation to the community. If civilization is an inevitable course of development for the procurement and augmentation of the necessities of from the group of the family to the group of humanity as a whole, life. This work is normally without satisfaction in itself; then an intensification of the sense of guilt - resulting from the to Freud it is unpleasurable, painful. In Freud's meta­ innate conflict of ambivalence, from the eternal struggle between the love and the death trends - will be inextricably bound up with psychology there is no room for an original "instinct of it, until perhaps the sense of guilt may swell to a magnitude that workmanship," " mastery instinct," etc." The notion of the individuals can hardly support." conservative nature of the instincts under the rule of In this quantitative analysis of the growth of the sense the pleasure and Nirvana principles strictly precludes such of guilt, the change in the quality of guiltiness, its growing assumption~When Freud incidentally mentions the" nat­ irrationality, seems to disappear. Indeed, Freud's central ural human aversion to work," 9 he only draws the inference sociological position prevented him from following this from his basic theoretical conception. The instinctual syn­ avenue. To him, there was no higher rationality against drome " unhappiness and work" recurs throughout Freud's which the prevailing one could be measured. If the irra­ writings," and his interpretation of the Prometheus myth tionality of guilt feeling is that of civilization itself, then it is centered on the connection between curbing of sexual is rational; and if the abolition of domination destroys cul­ passion and civilized work.r' The basic work in civilization ture itself, then it remains the supreme crime, and no effec­ 7 '" Civilized r- Sexual Morality and Modem Nervousness," in Col­ tive means for its prevention are irrational. However, lected Papers (London: Hogarth Press, 1950) , II, 82. Freud's own theory of instincts impelled him to go further 8 Ives Hendrick, " W ork and the Pleasure Principle," in Psychoan­ alytic Quarterly, XlI (1943), 314. For a further discussion of this paper, and to unfold the entire fatality and futility of this dy­ see Chapter 10 below. 9 Civilization and Its Discontents, p. 34 note. namic. Strengthened defense against aggression is neces­ 10 In a letter of April 16, 1896, he speaks of the" moderate misery sary; but in order to be effective the defense against en­ necessary for intensive work." Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sig­ m und Freud, Vol. I (New York: Basic Books, 1953), p. 305· larged aggressionwould have to strengthen the sex instincts, 11 Civilization and Its Discontents, pp. 50-51 note; Collected Papers, V, 288ff. For Freud's apparently contradictory statement on the libidinal for only a strong Eros can effectively "bind" the destruc- satisfaction provided by work (CiYilization and Its Discontents, p. 34 8 Ibid., pp. 12.1-12.2.. note), see page 212 below. 82 EROS AND CIVILIZATION THE DIALECTIC OF CIVILIZATION 83 is non-libidinal, islabor; labor is" unpleasantness," and such tions to satisfaction"), he calls them " closely related" to unpleasantness has to be enforced. "For what motive sublimation.v Thus the main sphere of civilization appears would induce man to put his sexual energy to other uses if as a sphere of sublimation. But sublimation involves de­ by- any disposal of it he could obtain fully satisfying pleas­ sexualization. Even if and where it draws on a reservoir of ure? He would never let go of this pleasure and would "neutral displaceable energy" in the ego and in the id, make no further progress." 12 If there is no original" work this neutral energy" proceeds from the narcissistic reservoir instinct," then the energy required for (unpleasurable) work of libido," i.e., it is desexualized Eros." The process of must be "withdrawn" from the primary instincts - from sublimation alters the balance in the instinctual structure. the sexual and from the destructive instincts. Since civiliza­ Life is the fusion of Eros and death instinct; in this fusion, tion is mainly the work of Eros, it is first of all withdrawal Eros has subdued its hostile partner. However: of libido: culture" obtains a great part of the mental energy After sublimation the erotic component no longer has the power it needs by subtracting it from sexuality." 18 to bind the whole of the destructive elements that were previously But not only the work impulses are thus fed by aim­ combined with it, and these are released in the form of inclinations inhibited sexuality. The specifically "social instincts" to aggression and destmction.rs (such as the" affectionate relations between parents and Culture demands continuous sublimation; it thereby weak­ children, . feelings of friendship, and the emotional ties ens Eros, the builder of culture. And desexualization, by in marriage") contain impulses which are "held back by weakening Eros, unbinds the destructive impulses. Civili­ internal resistance" from attaining their aims; 14 only by zation is thus threatened by an instinctual de-fusion, in virtue of such renunciation do they become sociable. Each which the death instinct strives to gain ascendancy over the individual contributes his renunciations (first under the im­ life instincts. Originating in renunciation and developing pact of external compulsion, then internally) , and from under progressive renunciation, civilization tends toward " these sources the common stock of the material and ideal self-destruction. wealth of civilization has been accumulated." 15 Althoug~ This argument runs too smooth to be true. A number Freud remarks that these social instincts" need not be de­ of objections arise. In the first place, not all work involves scribed as sublimated" (because they have not abandoned desexualization, and not all work is unpleasurable, is re­ their sexual aims but rest content with" certain approxima- nunciation.
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