Freud in Civilization

Sigmund Freud sets out to describe the human tendency to live in societies and to explain many of the problems inherent in this tendency. In many ways, Freud demonstrates Hedonistic views of human nature in his Civilizations and Its Discontents. In attempting to explain why human beings live in societies, Freud comes across an appealing idea. He deduces that while humans live in civilizations, we are restricted by these societies, and that these restrictions turn our instincts into guilt. Freud believes that the “sense of guilt [is] the most important problem in the development of civilization” and “the price we pay for our advance in civilization is a loss of happiness through the heightening of the sense of guilt.” (Freud, 97) Through a long line of reasoning, it can be seen that Freud justifies his claims very well.
He begins the argument by pointing out that humans in general seek happiness: “What do [men] demand of life and wish to achieve in it? The answer to...