Hey, what's up guys. This is Anthony from Book Success.
We are in freezy, ice-cold
Boston, Massachussets right now
But anyway, I'm going to talk about this book here:
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
And, this is really a book
I wanted to talk about for a very, very long time
Because it touches on our deepest psychology,
our human psychology.
And I'm going to dive into it right now.
So get ready, stay tuned and let's dive into it.
So for those of you who don't know
who Sigmund Freud is
Sigmund Freud was actually one of the most aspiring
psychologists of the 20th century.
He was basically the founder
of the psychoanalytic theory
in which he dived very deep
into the human psyche.
He studied terms such as the ego
He studies the concepts of
happiness
pain
pleasure
And he really bundled all those concepts
in this book here
Civilization and Its Discontents.
So, what does this book here talk about?
Well, in this book
Sigmund Freud studied how society - or civilization -
restricted our natural impulses and inclinations
And therefore made us more unhappy
or a bit 'frustrated' in life.
So, Sigmund Freud started with
a question
And that question was:
What is the purpose of people living on this planet?
What is their purpose in life?
And he found out,
he studied that for a long time,
that
all people want to feel happy.
That is their main purpose.
They strive after happiness.
And they want to remain happy.
And
In order to do that,
Sigmund Freud argued
They want to maximize pleasure,
and minimize pain or unpleasure.
That's what 'happiness' amongst Sigmund Freud was
or how it was defined
And, he noticed
that
this is actually in contradiction
with
how we are wired by nature.
Because human beings
are not wired
to be in a always very 'happy' state.
So, he says:
People will suffer.
People will feel unhappy,
and that's totally natural.
That's actually ok.
So, he says:
the main source of unhappiness
for most people,
is
our social relationships with other people.
And in a larger context,
that means
that
we feel unhappy
by
society
And, he says:
Society restricts the happiness
of the individual
Because it restricts our desires,
our natural inclinations.
It doesn't fit with how we are wired.
And, he says:
there are two main desires or inclinations,
people tend to have
in common.
The first one is
our natural inclinations towards
aggressiveness.
He says
All people have - like -
something in common
they're very aggressive by nature.
If we look back at
our primitive times
when we were apes,
and you had to
look for food,
you would easily
kill somebody for that.
So, we are very
aggressive by nature.
because we have to satisfy our
basic and vital needs.
So, that's an example.
The second desire
all human beings have in common,
is their desire for sexual satisfaction.
And, if we compare back to our primitive times
We could
like
mate with everyone we wanted
And that's how we did it.
I mean, there were really no policies
There were no real 'rules',
that held
us accountable.
That didn't exist by then.
So, right now
civilization really restricts
those
two kinds of
natural desires we have.
And, that is the reason why
we tend to feel a but 'frustrated' in life,
Sigmund Freud argues.
And, he really goes deeper
on those concepts
in his book.
So, if you are interested
I highly recommend you to check that out.
I will put a link here in the description below,
to my website
where I posted a summary of this book.
So, what I did on my website
I made it 'relatable'
more relatable.
Because reading the book is very hard
It's complex language.
It takes you some time
to really get the essence.
So I made the key concepts an ideas,
I summarized them
and laid them out for you
So, if you're interested in knowing these
check out the website
and I hope you get some value out of it.
Anyway, I'm signing off.
I'm actually watching the sunset
The sun is already down.
This is Boston by the way here,
at my school.
So, anyway
Signing off.
It was good to talk to you,
and I hope to talk to you next time.
Cheers, guys. Have a good one.
