Freud: Civilization

The instrument turned on love, society, and God

A course on the thought of Sigmund Freud.

Course outline

1. The Ego in Love with Itself — Before libido reaches any other person it invests the self: *narcissism*. Freud makes self-love a normal stage of infancy and a permanent economy — *ego-libido* and *object-libido* drawn from one…
2. The Discontent of Civilization — Civilization is a work of *Eros* — it binds individuals into ever-larger unities — but it demands the renunciation of drive, so it can never make us happy. Against Eros stands the *death drive*…
3. The Future of an Illusion — Freud's theory of religion: it is an *illusion* — a belief whose force comes from a wish, the child's wish for a protecting father, projected onto the cosmos as God. Rooted (via *Totem and Taboo*) in…

Part of the Symposium course library.