The Future of an Illusion

Freud, Sigmund. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Volume 21. The Future of an Illusion(1927). Translated by James Strachey. London: Hogarth Press, 1968.

What we find in this text is the beginning of studies which were to be Freud's main interest for the rest of his life.


Text:

I: Freud beings the text with an observation of two characteristics of civilization. [1] First, he notes that it has developed the knowledge and capacity necessary to control and extract the wealth of the world and society to the satisfaction of human needs. [2] Civilization has also acquired all the regulations that are necessary in order to adjust the relationships of people to one another. This is especially so in terms of the distribution of wealth.

What this implies is that human beings are not independent of each other. [a] The mutuality of human relationships is influenced by the amount of instinctual satisfaction which the available wealth makes possible. [b] Because individual's can function as wealth in relation to another individual in terms of [i] economics-i.e., that capacity to work, and [ii]as sexual objects. [c] Each individual is considered to be an enemy to civilization. This is so even though civilization if supposed to be an object of universal interest. Therefore civilization must defend itself against the individual, and its regulations, institutions and commands which are all formed for and directed towards this task. (6)

From this Freud concludes that every civilization must be built upon coercion and renunciation of instincts. That is, we must recognize the fact that there is present in all humans destructive, and thus anti-social and anti-cultural, trends and that this is enough to determine the behaviour of a great many persons. To Freud, then, the question becomes on of whether and to what extent is it possible to lessen the burden of instinctual sacrifices imposed on us in order to reconcile people to those restrictions on life that must remain and provide then compensation for them. He notes that just as it is impossible to do without the control of the group by a minority, it is impossible top dispense with coercion in civilization. This statement is based on Freud's opinion that groups are inherently lazy and unintelligent, etc. (see: Group Psychology S.E:18). (7)...

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