Curtis' /Happiness Machines/ and Freud's /Civilization and its Discontents/ For Sigmund Freud, is it possible to be happy? Why?

Curtis' /Happiness Machines/ and Freud's /Civilization and its Discontents/

For Sigmund Freud, is it possible to be happy?  Why?

[Sorry I do not know why the bibliography and citations went all wonky in my blog post and I do not know how to fix this problem. ]

The Nature of the Beast

In addressing the concept of Sigmund Freud and the possibility of happiness I am going to speak on a piece of his ideologies. Among the writing of Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents, a reference to purely animal drive, of sexuality and aggression, is addressed[1]. When an animalistic drive is placed in the context of “the human being” I am inclined to think of the basic rules of human existence: maximise pleasure and minimize pain. As egotistical as this rule of existence may sound, is it not how our daily lives are run? When there is a nail sticking out of a board would you step on the nail or step around the nail? Essentially, majority of human beings avoid the nail. Further simplification of the pleasure vs. pain analysis can be demolished into “the basic drive of man is to find happiness”. At the same time, the animal drive is split into sexuality [life drive] (the drive for pleasure or happiness) and aggression[2]. This aggression is used to champion the needs of the individual and therefore must be controlled by society [death drive][3].

            Taking this concept of aggression and sexuality, or perhaps aggression vs. sexuality, is it possible for the human being to be happy? If the human being, or in other words the individual, is always out to maximise their pleasure and minimise their pain then something is always suffering from this aggression. When one team wins the game, they win at another team’s expense. Therefore, if the human being is constantly striving for themselves than we will never reach happiness because there will always be a price to pay. At the same time, individuals, in a fashion, are flaunting their freedom as an individual to attain the maximum pleasure. The expense of this aggression of “self” is the need for society to control this selfishness. Though a

muddied example, when the riots broke out in Vancouver over the loss of the Stanley Cup the police force  demonstrated control over the individual need to lash out, loot and destroy.

---

[1]  S, Appel “Freud on Civilization”, Human Relations 48, no 6. (1995): 625-645.

             http://hum.sagepub.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/content/48/6/625.full.pdf+html

[2] S. Appel, Human Relations.17,19.

[3] Ibid., 17,19. &

Joanne Faulkner. “Freud’s Concept of the Death Drive and its Relation to the Superego”, An    

                    Internet Journal of Philosophy 9, (2005)

                    http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol9/Freud.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appel, S., “Freud on Civilization”, Human Relations 48, no 6. (1995): 625-645.

             http://hum.sagepub.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/content/48/6/625.full.pdf+html

Faulkner, Joanne. “Freud’s Concept of the Death Drive and its Relation to the Superego”, An    

                    Internet Journal of Philosophy 9, (2005)

                    http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol9/Freud.html