Freud And Nietzsche Essay

Furthermore, Freud and Nietzsche differ in their beliefs of human potential. On the whole, Freud gages human happiness based on the state of civilization. Freud is cynical about the progress of humanity and even dares to suggest that even though he has no way to prove it, our entire society might be neurotic (Freud 147). He reasons that if neurosis cases can arise from unexplained feelings of guilty in individuals and development of the individual parallels the evolution of civilization, then it is quite possible that neurosis could be prevalent throughout our society. Demoting the potential of humanity to the level of neurosis, Freud clearly does not have much hope for society. He believes that even though civilization is regarded as a solution to
Furthermore, Freud finds fault with the engineering of civilization itself. Drawing on the love instinct, civilization calls on individual to aspire to communal love. This means that people strive for happiness by transforming their sexual instincts of love into general affection for fellow man. Freud asserts that all forms of love, namely affection and friendship stem from sensual love. However, Freud believes that humans cannot be content with these modified forms of love; he doubts the credibility of sexual love that has conformed into affection and friendship under the pressure of civilization. In fact, Freud poses the question: What good is a love that does not discriminate? (*Ch4) On the contrary, Nietzsche is more bullish about the human condition because he believes humans can transcend the state of society and pursue happiness by virtue of their will to power. Instead of merely lamenting over widespread nihilism and the flaws of civilization, Nietzsche advances that humans can transcend their current condition by recognizing the pitfalls in the current system of