Happiness of Freud

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Happiness of Freud Introduction In today’s ‘never-ending’ search for happiness, people often meet emptiness in existence, which is always on the verge. This modern problem is not the result of contemporary culture but is one of the essential questions Sigmund Freud argued. Here, Freud does an excellent job of analyzing the inherent conflict between the need to conform to civilizing influences and the need for a person to live a fulfilling life. He argues that although expressed and designed to further the welfare of society and the general humanity, civilizations are forces against man’s primal instinct, the desire to attain individual happiness. Freud opines that this happens because civilization requires a rein on self-instinct and passion for the general well-being of society. To Freud, such sublimation is thorny and unavoidable because it results in restlessness among the people. He argued that culture works as the infrastructure of civilization to protect and further society’s best interest but corrodes individual happiness by suppressing the impulses that lead to happy lives. Therefore, there is a civilized environment outside that has attained maximum security and minimal conflict. At the same time, internal security and internal conflict have been at maximum, and human dissatisfaction is also at maximum, making us think about whether living in a society or a community is better. Discussion Happiness in Civilization. According to Freud, Happiness itself is predetermined by the pleasure principle, which the latter develops throughout the work. Self-seeking, which is grounded in the animal-like response of seeking pleasure and avoiding lament, becomes the basis for individual wants. However, in Freud’s elaboration, civilization, the institutions of this civilization, and the laws and norms defining them set narrow frames for these needs. He submits that such constraint serves the interest of order and communal living. In his discussion, Freud shows that civilization regulates human behavior and then displaces and redirects the energy toward establishing neurosis. He claims that civilization means a relentless renunciation of individual pleasures and the repression of libidinal solid drives, mostly of sexual and aggressive kind (Freud 89). Though it permits the requisite amount of hassle-free social contact, forbidding chaos results in mild dissatisfaction with the subject. Furthermore, Freud’s civilization’s architecture builds an inherent core obstacle to human happiness. It is not an accidental side effect of the corralled existence but a built-in element of any organized society seeking to reconcile its members’ multiple and often opposing wants (Freud 91). Therefore, the basic framework of civilization stops joy and is needed for the group’s welfare; the fundamental framework of civilization – the series of principles fashioned by the race to safeguard its group’s safety and worldly gains – interferes with happiness. Religion in Happiness. Freud explores the rather intricate function of religion as the mediator between the conflicting instincts inherent in man and the repressive norms of civilization. He puts forward the concept of ‘oceanic feeling’ as a romantic identification with the cosmos and the psychological origin of the religious spirit. Although Freud himself never personally had this feeling, it is assumed that he knew from whence he spoke when he described the state of the religion among people: the individual experiences an everlasting membership in the cosmic commune and an illusion of the founder’s identity with the whole (Freud 75). According to Freud, this perception provides a psychological release from social loneliness and proscribed outsider status, the civilized individual. Religion supplies an equivalent for the satisfaction of impulses held in check by civilization by transforming the impulses into socially acceptable forms of behavior. This substitution, therefore, has its advantages and disadvantages. While it provide...