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Civilization and Its Discontents (International Psycho-Analytical Lib)

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Original price $4.99
Current price $3.16
Author: Sigmund Freud

Paperback:
Publisher: Martino Fine Books
ISBN 10: 1891396625
ISBN 13: 978-1891396625

Hardcover:
Publisher: General Press
ISBN 10: 9388118278
ISBN 13: 978-9388118279

Reprint of the 1930 American edition. In this seminal book, Sigmund Freud enumerates the fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. The primary friction stems from the individual's quest for instinctual freedom and civilization's contrary demand for conformity and instinctual repression. Many of humankind's primitive instincts (for example, the desire to kill and the insatiable craving for sexual gratification) are clearly harmful to the well-being of a human community. As a result, civilization creates laws that prohibit killing, rape, and adultery, and it implements severe punishments if such commandments are broken. This process, argues Freud, is an inherent quality of civilization that instills perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens.