When thinking of sexuality, what is the first image that pops in your head? Is it a romantic relationship between a man and a woman who are in love with one another or a person trying to figure out there preferences when they are attracted to someone else. Sigmund Freud was a neurologist and a German writer, that explained how sexuality is one of the most important characteristics that makes up a human being. He sees it as an instinctual premise that needs to be brought out and instilled into every human being. In his writing he sees that humans have gone away from their true nature and have tried to mask it through civilization.
Sigmund Freud identifies “sexuality” in his book Civilization & Its Discontents as being in conflict with civilization. In his mind, there is no possible scenario where humans are able to be the primitive individuals he desires if they have a place in civilization. Freud identifies the conflict by claiming that sexuality happens in “a relationship between two people” while in a civilization there are relationships “between larger groups of persons.” (Freud 49). The differences between civilization and sexuality are clear to see. In order to be in a sexual relationship, there only needs to be two people, while a civilization calls for multiple individuals to work together in a community to achieve or do something. The claim made in the book shows that Freud assumes that a person, in his thinking, can only be at his happiest and best self when not being in a civilization with other human beings. Freud gives an example of how there is no need to be in a community or “civilization” in order to make a couple happy. He states that “ When a love-relationship is at its height, no room is left for any interest in the surrounding world” (Freud 49). This statement suggests that if two people are in a relationship where they are so focused on the love they have for one another then there is no need for them to deal with things that are outside of their own little bubble involving the two of them. Freud also states that starting a family is like starting a civilization, because the two involved in the “love-relationship” will only see the child as an object that will evidently in time cause them to drift apart and focus more on the child than their relationship (Freud 49). In this sense Freud is showing us how it does not take much for a community to form and for it to compete with sexuality. In Freud’s mind, the child will automatically form a built in community with the two partners and the child. This will cause the parents to look after the well being of the child and take a shared role in carrying for it. This action can easily be seen in communities and civilizations, because every human being in that area works together in order to achieve the better good for the group.
Freud continues to use the example of the primitive man in order to prove his point. In his books he talks about how he admires“the primitive man” due to the fact that he can do whatever he pleases to whomever he pleases as long as he is stronger and bigger than the other “primitive man”(Freud 54). In this sense, Freud has basically pulled the idea of civilization and community making human beings happy apart. With taking whatever an individual wants from another person shuts down the sense of community that people get from living together and working together in order to survive. In the way Freud is describing, every human being will only do what he or she wants in order to make themselves happy. Whether that is taking someones mate from them or there belongs, humans will only do whatever they feel is right in their own eyes. Freud sees community as harmful to human beings, because when “group formation” occurs it seems to him that the individuals end up losing their sense of self (Freud 57). This is due to the human beings having to conform to the group in order for the civilization to benefit from what is taking place inside of the communities that have been established.
Although there are some problems that can be seen in forming a civilization or a community, no matter the size, there are also positives that are tied to them. Many individuals see community as security for themselves. In a larger group of individuals, it is less likely for something to happen or to go wrong. Alone, however, others would be able to attack each other more directly. Just like how Freud used the primitive man example to disagree with forming civilization, it can also prove as to why people need them in the first place. In primal time, people just went taking whatever they wanted from others, without having boundaries and rules as to what they were able to take. In a civilization, there a people working together to make life easier on one another. This can be seen in how some people in a civilization will exchange different services to one another, which allows for the community in the civilization to thrive. Humans relying on a group of people can in some ways allow life to be bearable to everyone in the group.
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