CHAPTER ONE . The Hidden Trend In Psychoanalysis The concept of man that emerges from Freudian theory is the most irrefutable indictment of Western civilization­ and at the same time the most unshakable defense of this civilization. According to Freud, the history of man is the history of his repression: Culture constrains not only his societal but also his biological existence, not only parts of the human being but his instinctual structure itself. How­ ever, such constraint is the very precondition of progress. Left free to pursue their natural objectives, the basic in­ stincts of man would be incompatible with all lasting asso­ ciation and preservation: they would destroy even where they unite. The uncontrolled Eros is just as fatal as his deadly counterpart, the death instinct" Their destructive force derives from the fact that they strive for a ~rati!ication which culture cannot &r~nt : gratification as such and as an end in itself, at any moment. The instincts must therefore J be deflected from their goal, inhibited in their aim. Civili- zation begins when the yrimary objective - namely: "i~­ tegral satisfaction of neecfs - is effectively renounced: . The vicissitudesof the instincts are the vicissitudes of the mental apparatus in civilization. The animal drives be- 12 EROS AND CIVILIZATION THE HIDDEN TREND IN PSYCHOANALYSIS 13 come human instincts under the influence of the external as well as a structural one: the unconscious, ruled by the reality. Their original "location" in the organism and pleasure principle, comprises" the older, primary processes, their basic direction remain the same, but their objectives the residues of a phase of development in which they were and their manifestations are subject to change. All psycho­ the only kind of mental processes." They strive for noth­ analytic concepts (sublimation, identification, projection, ing but for" gaining pleasure; from any operation which repression, introjection) connote the mutability of the in­ might arouse unpleasantness (' pain') mental activity '". stincts. But the reality which shapes the instincts as well draws back." 1 But the unrestrained pleasure principle as their needs and satisfaction is a socio-historical world. comes into conflict with the natural and human environ- The animal man becomes a human being only through a ment. The individual comes to the traumatic realization fundamental transformation of his nature, affecting not that full and painless gratification of his needs is impossible. only the instinctual aims but also the instinctual" values" And after this experience of disappointment, a new princi- - that is, the principles that govern the attainment of the ple of mental functioning gains ascendancy. The reality aims. The change in the governing value system may be principle supersedes the pleasure principle: man learns to J-,. f tentatively defined as follows: give up momentary, uncertain, and destructive pleasure for IJ; 'ZSC,01- from: to: delayed, restrained, but "assured " pleasure." Because of immediate satisfaction delayed satisfaction this lasting gain through renunciation and restraint, accord- pleasure restraint of pleasure ing to Freud, the reality principle" safeguards" rather than joy (play) toil (work) "dethrones," "modifies" rather than denies, the pleasure receptiveness productiveness principle. absence of repression security However, the psychoanalytic interpretation reveals that Freud described this change as the transformation of the the reality principle enforces a change not only in the form pleasure principle into the reality principle. The interpre­ and timing of pleasure but in its very substance. The ad­ tation of the" mental apparatus" in terms of these two justment of pleasure to the reality principle implies the sub- I principles is basic to Freud's theory and remains so in spite jugation and diversion of the destructive force of instinctual of all modifications of the dualistic conception. It corre­ gratification, of its incompatibility with the established so­ spondslargely (but not entirely) to the distinction between cietal norms and relations, and, by that .token, implies the unconscious and conscious processes. The individual ex­ transubstantiation of pleasure itself. ists, as it were, in two different dimensions, characterized 1 "Formulations Regarding the Two Principles in Mental Function­ by different mental processes and principles. The differ­ ing," in Collected Papers (London: Hogarth Press, 1950), IV, 14· Quo­ tations are used by permission of the publisher. ence between these two dimensions is a genetic-historical 2 Ibid., p. 18. 14 EROS AND CIVILIZATION THE HIDDEN TREND IN PSYCHOANALYSIS 15. /' With the establishment of the(reality principle) the hu- represses and transubstantiates his original instinctual needs. man being which, under the pleasure principle, bas been If absence from repression is the archetype of freedom, then hardly more than a bundle of animal drives, has become an civilization is the struggle against this freedom. ,,- organized ego. It strives for" what is useful" and what The replacement of the pleasure principle by the reality can be obtained without damage to itself and to its vital principle is the great traumatic event in the development of environment. Under the reality.,principle, the human be­ man - in the development of the genus (phylogenesis) as ing develops the function of reason: it learns to " test" the well as of the individual (ontogenesis). According to ~curs reality, to distinguish between good and bad, true and false, Freud, this event is not unique but throughout the useful and harmful. Man acquires the faculties of atten­ history of mankind and of every individual.] Phylogeneti­ wh~the tion, memory, and judgment. He becomes a conscious, cally, it occurs first in the primalhorde, primal fa­ thinking subject, geared to a rationality which is imposed ther monopolizes power and pleasure and enforces renun­ upon him from outside. Only one mode of thought­ ciation on the part of the sons. Ontogenetically, it occurs activity is " split off " from the new organization of the men­ during the period of early childhood, and submission to the tal apparatus and remains free from the rule of the reality reality principle is enforced by the parents and other edu­ principle: phantasyis" protected from cultural alterations" cators. But, both on the generic and on the individual level, and stays committed to the pleasure principle. Otherwise, submission is continuously ' reproduced. The rule of the the mental apparatus is effectively subordinated to the real­ primal father is followed, after the first rebellion, by the ity principle. The function of " motor discharge," which, rule of the sons, and the brother clan develops into institu­ under the supremacy of the pleasure principle, had " served tionalized social and political domination. The reality prin­ to unburden the mental apparatus of accretions of stimuli," ciple materializes in a system of institutions. And the is now employed in the" appropriate alteration of reality": individual, growing up within such a system, learns the re­ it is converted into action? quirements of the reality principle as those of law and or­ The scope of man's desires and the instrumentalities for der, and transmits them to the next generation. their gratification are thus immeasurably increased, and his The fact that the reality principle has to be re-established ability to alter reality consciously in accordance with " what continually in the development of man indicates that its triumph over the pleasure principle is never complete and is_useful JJ seems..tQ promise agradual removal of extraneous ~ barriers to his gratification. However, neither his desires never secure. In the Freudian conception, civilization does nor his alteration of reality are henceforth his own: they are not once and for all terminate a "state of nature." What now" organized" by his society. And this" organization" civilization masters and represses - the claim of the pleas­ ----~ . ~ ~ ure principle - continues to exist in civilization itself. The 8 Ibid., p. 16. • '1 16 EP.OS AND CIVILIZAnON THE HIDDEN TREND IN PSYCHOANALYSIS 17' unconscious retains the objectives of the defeated pleasure impulses; that they cannot live under the pleasure principle. principle. Turned back by the external reality or even un­ Society's motive in enforcing the decisive modification of able to reach it,...the full force of the pleasure principle not -the instinctual structure is thus" economic; since it has not only survives in the unconscious but also affects in mani­ enollg~!2 .~I,l£E~~tJ!!.~1~!.A~ .l!l.~I??ers w~~E.0ut means-- - - work fold ways the very reality which has superseded the pleasure on their part, it must see to itthat the number of these principle. The return of the repressed makes up the ta­ mem~~r~.~~...!.~!rjc::t~<;LC!g.~ their energies directed away from booed and subterranean history of civilization. And the sexual activities on to their work." 4 ., ~-- ---- --- exploration of this history reveals not only the secret of the This conception is as old as civilization and has always individual but also that of civilization. Freud's individual provided the most effective rationalization for repression. psychology is in its very essence social psychology. Repres­ To a considerable extent, Freud's theory partakes of this ra­ sion is a historical phenomenon. The effective subjugation tionalization: Freud considers the" primordial struggle for of the instincts