Sigmund Freud begins by investigating the oceanic feeling described by his contemporaries, which he traces back to an early, infantile stage of the ego before it separated itself from the external world. He notes that while human beings universally strive for happiness through the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, the constitution of the world and our own bodies run counter to this goal. To cope with inevitable suffering, people rely on various palliative remedies, including powerful diversions, substitute gratifications provided by art, intoxicating substances, and religious systems that function as mass delusions by offering infantile protection.
The inquiry then shifts to the nature of civilization, which Freud defines as the sum of achievements and regulations designed to protect humanity against nature and to regulate social relations. Civilization originates from two fundamental forces: the necessity of work driven by external conditions and the power of love that binds families together. However, culture requires massive sacrifices of instinctual energy, particularly by restricting sexual freedom through monogamy and the prohibition of incest. This systematic repression creates deep dissatisfaction and a permanent antagonism between the individual and society.
Freud identifies the core obstacle to civilization as the innate, independent instinct of aggression and destruction inherent in human nature. Homo homini lupus: men are not gentle creatures who merely wish for love, but savage beasts driven to exploit and torture one another. Because mutual hostility threatens to disintegrate any community, civilization must erect barriers against aggression by fostering identifications, demanding aim-inhibited love, and commanding neighbors to love one another as themselves. This ethical demand runs contrary to human instinct and places an impossible psychological burden on the individual.
To master dangerous aggressive impulses, the individual introjects them into the mind through the formation of a super-ego, which acts as a harsh conscience. When aggression is not discharged outwardly, it is turned against the ego, generating a continuous sense of guilt and a need for punishment. Freud traces the phylogenetic origin of this guilt back to the primal horde and the killing of the father, arguing that the eternal struggle between Eros and the death instinct governs human history.
Ultimately, Freud concludes that the price of progress in civilization is paid in forfeited happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt. As communities grow larger, this inner tension increases, leaving modern human beings perpetually anxious and dissatisfied. The fateful question for the human species is whether cultural development can successfully master the derangements caused by our innate aggressive drive, especially now that our technical mastery over nature has given us the power to annihilate one another completely.
