What Is Freud's Theory Of Inherited Unhappiness By Guilt?
Aaron Stallings
Modern capitalist societies have long emphasized the pursuit of personal happiness while directly inhibiting the natural desire of individual pleasures. This is accomplished through the utilization of social systems which establish hierarchical rule and common law among ruled people. I argue that these social members suffer through alleged feelings of dissatisfaction and unhappiness due to their active participation in civilization. In capitalist societies people are vigorously trained into accepting lives of conformity in regards to normative within social and industrial spheres of life. I offer evidence through Sigmund Freud's theory of “inherited unhappiness by guilt” in Civilizations and Its Discontents. His argument supports …show more content…
He connects human societies modeling system of one “dominant male leader over a supporting female majority” and offers that an eventual uprising and overtaking of said rulers leads to traumatic remorse which internalizes the will of the leader as guilt in the form of a “super-ego” or human conscious (Freud 92). This super-ego places extensive demands on the individual that cannot be realistically obtained, causing a great sense of unhappiness. The super-ego serves as an internal psychological force that monitors the intentions and actions of the physical ego through limiting the individual's instincts society deems to be unfavorable. Freud purposes that guilt causes an internal struggle between man's instincts among love, life, death, and destruction is the primary method utilized by civilizations in efforts to inhibit members' individual instinctive behavior. He argues that guilt also contributes to man's unwillingness for brutal aggression towards authority figures and sexual competitors even though both variables obstruction personal gratification of one's interest and happiness (Freud 61). This is against a realization that the use of instinctive aggression towards inhibitors works well against the minority elite among civilizations. In civilized society, people have restrained their inclination to aggression through the rule of law and the imposition of guilt as result of acting out against an external or internal authority. Individuals enter a society to escape forces of mutual aggression and self-destruction, but the need to discourage human aggression has directly caused discontent and an increasing sense of guilt which is not created from their own original thought. As people gain an individual identity they attempt to channel their primal energy into other activities and are
Modern capitalist societies have long emphasized the pursuit of personal happiness while directly inhibiting the natural desire of individual pleasures. This is accomplished through the utilization of social systems which establish hierarchical rule and common law among ruled people. I argue that these social members suffer through alleged feelings of dissatisfaction and unhappiness due to their active participation in civilization. In capitalist societies people are vigorously trained into accepting lives of conformity in regards to normative within social and industrial spheres of life. I offer evidence through Sigmund Freud's theory of “inherited unhappiness by guilt” in Civilizations and Its Discontents. His argument supports …show more content…
He connects human societies modeling system of one “dominant male leader over a supporting female majority” and offers that an eventual uprising and overtaking of said rulers leads to traumatic remorse which internalizes the will of the leader as guilt in the form of a “super-ego” or human conscious (Freud 92). This super-ego places extensive demands on the individual that cannot be realistically obtained, causing a great sense of unhappiness. The super-ego serves as an internal psychological force that monitors the intentions and actions of the physical ego through limiting the individual's instincts society deems to be unfavorable. Freud purposes that guilt causes an internal struggle between man's instincts among love, life, death, and destruction is the primary method utilized by civilizations in efforts to inhibit members' individual instinctive behavior. He argues that guilt also contributes to man's unwillingness for brutal aggression towards authority figures and sexual competitors even though both variables obstruction personal gratification of one's interest and happiness (Freud 61). This is against a realization that the use of instinctive aggression towards inhibitors works well against the minority elite among civilizations. In civilized society, people have restrained their inclination to aggression through the rule of law and the imposition of guilt as result of acting out against an external or internal authority. Individuals enter a society to escape forces of mutual aggression and self-destruction, but the need to discourage human aggression has directly caused discontent and an increasing sense of guilt which is not created from their own original thought. As people gain an individual identity they attempt to channel their primal energy into other activities and are