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culture psychoanalysis freud jung
The concept of culture in the theory of psychoanalysis by Z. Freud and C. Jung
1. Features of the psychoanalytic concept of culture 3. Freud
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) - the founder of psychoanalysis, a Viennese psychiatrist, the first to use psychological factors to explain cultural phenomena and creative processes. Main works" Introduction to Psychoanalysis", "I and It", "Totem and Taboo".His concept can also be called naturalisticbecause he saw the source of culture in the natural biological nature of man. Z. Freud hypothesized the existence unconsciousas a special deep level of the human psyche, which differs from the sphere of consciousness and has a powerful, sometimes hidden effect on it.
Freud divided the structure of the human psyche into 3 parts:
"It"- animal instincts, a "boiling cauldron of instincts" inherited by man, his unconscious drives, primary desires. Freud identified two basic instincts: Eros- sexual desires and Thanatos- the desire for destruction and death directed outward. "It" lives on pleasure principle and enjoyment.
"I"- Consciousness, which needs to choose. It is an intermediary between the unconscious and the outside world, regulates the actions of the individual, ensures the survival of a person in the world of nature and society, adapts to objective conditions. "I" lives on principle of reality.
"Super-I"- these are prohibitions and norms of a sociocultural nature (includes the simple concepts of "possible", "impossible", "should", and more complex social prescriptions and values, representing a moral law for a person). They are acquired by the person unconsciously in the process of education. "Super-I" is a kind of projection of the world of culture into the human psyche, which also manifests itself in the form of the unconscious. "Super-I" lives according to conscienceand protect society.
"It" is the world of instincts inherent in the human psyche, uncontrolled and unconscious desires that actively interfere in our lives, and the idea that our actions are guided by our "I" is only an illusion, Freud believes. A direct collision of "I" and "It" will inevitably lead to the victory of the unconscious. But a person in society can survive only by subordinating "It" to his most important goals. "I" responds, on the one hand, to the needs of "It", and, on the other hand, takes into account the normative prescriptions of society (which are represented in the human psyche in the "Super-I"). And the activity of the "Super-I" is associated with the search for socially acceptable methods of satisfying needs. Although the "Super-I" can also dominate the "I", acting as a conscience or a vague feeling of guilt.
Freud defined three behaviorsin "relationship" with "it":
Satisfaction "It" (principle
pleasure, enjoyment), when all energy is spent on satisfying animal instincts.
The fate of such a person is tragic, says Freud. A person who satisfies his desires and instincts without taking into account the moral norms and laws that exist in society and determine life in society is isolated from society.
.suppression"It" (to act according to one's conscience), according to Freud, often leads to mental illness (dissatisfaction of primary desires and instincts - "feeling of unhappiness -\u003e depression, etc.)
3.Sublimation"It". Freud introduced the concept of "sublimation". Sublimation is the human ability developed in the process of historical development to transfer the energy of animal instincts into various forms of creativity, into various activities for the benefit of society and culture.
.Freud believed that unsatisfied desires, accumulating, turn the human psyche into a "boiling cauldron of instincts", so they must be periodically "discharged" in a way that is safe for society. AND culture provides a person with the opportunity to sublimate the energy of instincts.Sports, science, art, spiritualized love and all kinds of human activity - all this, according to 3. Freud, are products of sublimation of primary instincts. Culture does not create a person's vital energy, it only directs it to reasonable goals and rationally organizes its use in the conditions of human society.
Looking for the origins of culture, Freud turns to the analysis of the pre-cultural state of mankind and connects the emergence of culture with a sense of guilt for "the murder of the primitive father." The life of our ancestors was presented as follows: a primitive herd in which all the females belonged to the strongest male, growing sons are expelled from the herd, they are not allowed to approach the females. So they live at a distance until the strongest succeeds his decrepit father. But one day, the unsatisfied attraction of the sons makes them unite, kill their father and eat him. But after the parricide, the sons experienced a great sense of guilt for what they had done and established a ban on parricide and incest - incest within the clan. These first prohibitions are the basis of culture, so morality was born. The moment of the emergence of culture is the moment when the aggressive and sexual drives of a person,who were previously satisfied freely, begin suppressed by the norms of morality and customs of society.
According to Freud, traces of this were preserved in ritual totemic sacrificial meals among many primitive peoples. The totemic animal, which was solemnly killed and eaten by the primitive clan, replaced the once killed and eaten father, and these totemic rituals, preserved among some peoples, remind us of the original guilt of man.
In his concept 3. Freud contrasts a person and society, and, analyzing the influence of culture on a person, he comes to the conclusion that the development of culture leads to a decrease in human happiness and an increase in guilt and dissatisfaction due to the suppression of desires. And the higher the stage of cultural development, the more unhappy the person. According to 3. Freud, culture is neurotic in nature. Freud especially negatively evaluates European culture - Christian culture with its very strict prohibitions (10 commandments). Z. Freud evaluated sublimation as a pseudo-realization of a person.
Freud's concept had a huge impact on the development of science and social thought in the 20th century. He was the first to use psychological factors to explain cultural phenomena and creative processes, although there are many shortcomings in his theory (for example, he biologized the origin of culture). Freud is the founder of the method of psychoanalysis, the organizer of psychoanalytic assistance in the USA and Europe.
2. The specifics of the analytical concept of culture K.G. cabin boy
Carl Gustav Jung(1876-1961), Swiss psychologist, psychotherapist, author "Analytical psychology", "Archetype and symbol".He was a student of Z. Freud and collaborated with him for some time and took a lot from psychoanalysis, but he disagreed with Freud, and his research led to different conclusions. Jung saw in man, first of all, a spiritual being, capable of opposing the spirit to instincts. This, in essence, formed the basis of Jung's criticism of Freud, a painful break with which he substantiated in his work "The Contradictions of Freud and Jung" published in 1929. The essence of Jung's position was that he refused to perceive a person as a creature driven by instincts, subject to the elements of the unconscious. If Z. Freud explored the unconscious as the natural essence of man,then K. Jung discovered the original cultural origins of the unconscious.
Firstly, Jung showed interest in the mystical aspects of culture, in his studies he compared the states of mediumistic trance, hallucinations and obscuration of reason, Jung noted the presence of similar states in prophets, poets, founders of religious movements and in sick people. In his opinion, for poets, prophets and other prominent people, their own voice is joined by another, coming from the depths of consciousness. The consciousness of the creators (unlike the consciousness of the sick) can seize the content coming from the recesses of the subconscious and give it a religious or artistic form. Eminent people have intuition "far surpassing the conscious mind."They catch some "protoforms": these "protoforms pop up in our minds spontaneously and have the ability to influence our inner world," Jung believed.
Secondly, Jung discovered typical images - images-symbols passing through the entire history of world cultureand expressing a person's involvement in the mysterious side of life. These symbolic images "have never been conscious and have never been acquired individually, but owe their existence exclusively to inheritance" (K. Jung). Those. they are born of the unconscious common to all people. Jung drew attention to the parallelism of mythological plots and motifs in which these images arise (about the Flood, about Heroes, about devotion, for example, in Greek culture, this is the myth of Penelope, about invulnerability, for example, in Greek culture, the myth of Achilles). This he considered proof of the existence of the unconscious.
Based on this, Jung divided the unconscious into two layers:
)personal unconscious - these are lost memories, as well as contents that have not yet consciously matured; and 2)the collective unconscious (non- or superpersonal unconscious) is the most ancient and universal forms of human representations, the ancestral memory of mankind, it is a reflection of the experience of previous generations imprinted in the structures of the brain. This unconscious was born at the dawn of human history in the collective mental experience, it is the basis of our psyche. The collective unconscious is a part of the psyche that is common to all mankind. The collective unconscious is older than human consciousness, therefore human consciousness is formed and grows out of the collective unconscious.
Archetypes are the primary structures of the collective unconscious.(from lat. arche - beginning, typos - imprint) - a kind of sediment from the primary spiritual experience of mankind.
Archetypes are images or motifs without content.(but they are able to be filled with consciousness) - a deep layer of the unconscious, where universal human primordial images lie dormant.This is a mental meaning, which in itself is devoid of objectivity, for example, one of the meanings is the thirst for love, which is not initially associated with any particular image or person. The archetype is the primordialinvisibly organizing and directing the life of our soul. K. Jung singled out a number of universal cultural archetypes, for example, mother, child, old man and others.
Archetypes have never been conscious, they have never been acquired individually, they are inherited, they are born from the unconscious common to all people. The collective unconscious (having cultural origins) "starts" the process of inculturation (this is the process of entering a culture, i.e. the assimilation of the culture of previous generations). Archetypes are some kind of innate programs under their influence are not only elementary behavioral reactions (unconditioned reflexes), but also perception, thinking, imagination. There are as many archetypes as there are typical life situations, if something happens in life that corresponds to the archetype, then it is activated.
Archetypes are unchanging, but their content is constantly influenced by the social environment and historical events. In the most general sense, an archetype is an eternal plot or image that repeats itself from era to era, from culture to culture, but each time rethought in a new way in accordance with the spirit of its time and its culture. Jung gave an example. In the 19th century, the idea of conservation of energy was expressed by Robert Mayer, he was a doctor, and not at all a physicist and not a natural philosopher, but it was not created by Mayer in the full sense of the word. Mayer recalled that it "surfaced" in him and led to the conclusion that this was so. Jung explains that idea of energy and its conservation,should be is the original imagewho slumbered in the collective unconscious. In primitive (dynamic) religions, this image of energy was expressed by the idea of the existence of a universally distributed magical force around which everything revolves. Heraclitus - as the world energy, as "eternally living fire." In the Gospels, energy is manifested in the changes of the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues emanating from heaven. In the Middle Ages - like an aura, a halo of a saint, in the idea of the immortality of the soul, lies the idea of its preservation. In the East - as the idea of the transmigration of the soul.
For Jung, the conscious and the unconscious complement each other, both are the source of culture. For Jung, the unconscious basis of the human personality, although of archaic origin, can still live in peace with culture.
Jung also paid much attention to the analysis of thinking and its relationship with culture, believing that culture is a common and accepted way of thinking.In his opinion, there two types of thinking logical and intuitive.
Logical thinking- this is a European (Western) cultural tradition, it developed within the framework of medieval culture on the basis of scholasticism. Scholasticism prepared the categorical apparatus of science, when thinking is carried out in verbal terms, based on laws, identity and consistency in reasoning.
Intuitive thinking - a form of thinking based on insight, intuitionis a tradition of the countries of the East, thinking is carried out in the form of a stream of images,it is directed inside consciousness, it is not productive for industrial development, but it is indispensable for creativity, mythology, religion and is intended to adapt to the collective unconscious, establishing a balance between consciousness and the collective unconscious.
K. Jung creatororiginal theories of psychological types.He identified two psychological types: extrovert and introvert. extrovert- this is such a psychological type of interest and attention, which is directed to the outside world, to adaptation to the outside world to the knowledge of this world, it is aimed at expanding consciousness. Introvert -this is such a psychological type of interest, which is directed to the inner world, to the inner object, to the deepening of consciousness - to the collective unconscious.
K. Jung says that the Indian always remembers not only his own nature, but also that he himself belongs to nature. The European, on the contrary, has at his disposal the science of nature and knows surprisingly little about his own essence, about his inner nature. And he believes that in order to get out of the crisis, European culture, with a predominance of extroverts in it, in which the balance of consciousness and the unconscious is disturbed, must change and restore the lost unity of the human soul.
In its conception and immediate goal, Freudianism is focused on the study and treatment of the psyche of individuals, but from the very beginning it contained a tendency to explain social consciousness in its present and past. The "prohibitions" which, according to Freud, push sexual desire into the realm of the unconscious and give rise to neuroses, were, in essence, nothing more than social norms of morality and law that arose at the dawn of human history. Freud called them "cultural prohibitions" and believed that it was extremely important to find out how, why, under what conditions they arose, established themselves, evolved. The scientist's attention was drawn to the problems of the formation and essence of human culture. As Freud himself wrote, he sought to judge the general development of mankind by his experience gained ... on the path of studying the mental processes of individuals throughout their development from childhood to adulthood. Transferring individual characteristics from an individual to the whole of humanity, Freud thus tried to understand the process of evolution of society.
It should be noted that Freud transfers to the whole of humanity the psychological traits of not just an individual, but a neurotic. Along the way, the scientist put forward a number of statements. In his opinion, firstly, all people are more or less neurotic. Secondly, each child in his individual development goes through a phase of neurosis. Thirdly, the stage of neurosis is also characteristic of primitive man. All peoples pass through it in their cultural and historical development. Considering culture through the prism of the individual's neurotic consciousness, Freud qualified it as a system of prohibitions that block a person's natural inclinations. In his opinion, the repression of desires is a measure of the achieved cultural level, and the cultural development of mankind is a renunciation of natural passions, the satisfaction of which guarantees the elementary pleasure of our “I”.
It should be emphasized that the Freudian term "culture" in most cases turns out to be equivalent to the concept of "society". In the most extended definition of "human culture" Freud points out that "it includes all the knowledge and methods acquired by people to dominate the forces of nature and obtain goods to satisfy human needs", and at the same time it includes all institutions that regulate relations between people. , in particular the distribution of extracted goods. But it should be noted that destructive, anti-social, anti-cultural traditions are still alive among all people, and that these aspirations in a significant number of people are so strong that they determine their behavior among others.
We can say that a person, as it were, is between two fires. On the one hand, culture oppresses a person, deprives him of pleasures (for this he seeks to get rid of it); on the other hand, culture protects it from environmental factors, allows you to master all the benefits of nature and use them, and also divides them among people. So, if a person renounces culture in favor of his own pleasures, then he loses protection, many benefits, and may perish. If he refuses pleasures in favor of culture, then this is a heavy burden on his psyche. In what direction is the person inclined? Of course, in the second. Freud writes about it this way: “Because of this, any culture must be built on coercion and on the renunciation of instincts, and when it is understood, it turns out that the center of gravity has been shifted from material interests to the psyche. The decisive question is whether and to what extent it will be possible to reduce for people the severity of the sacrifice, which consists in the renunciation of their inclinations, will reconcile people with the sacrifices that they inevitably have to bear, and how to reward them for these sacrifices. The main question remains how to force the negative crowd to comply with cultural dogmas. This raises the question of the role of the individual in culture.
The main theories of the origin of culture
One of the most difficult problems associated with cultural genesis is the problem of the origin of culture.
Tool-evolutionary version of the origin of culture
Representatives and their works:
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), article "The role of labor in the process of transformation of apes into humans" (1873-1876), which was one of the chapters of his work "Dialectics of Nature".
Karl Marx(1818-1883) - German philosopher, sociologist, economist, writer, poet, political journalist, public figure.
K. Marx believed that the development of culture is based on the improvement of the material side of life.
K. Marx argued that culture is associated with human labor, with the production of material goods.
According to the tool-labor concept, man stood out from the animal world.
F. Engels belongs to the classical formula: "Labor made man."
By labor, F. Engels understood purposeful activity, which began with the manufacture of tools from stone, bone and wood.
According to K. Marx and F. Engels, consciousness arose as a result of labor.
In the process of labor, people there was a need to say something to each other.
This is how speech came about. as a means of communication in joint labor activity.
The consequences of these prerequisites - the emergence of the process of labor and speech - are enormous.
Human activity has become a huge impetus that has led to cultural genesis.
Psychoanalytic explanation of the origin of culture
The concept of culture Z. Freud
Founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in the book "Totem and Taboo" tried to reveal cultural genesis through the phenomenon of primitive culture.
Z. Freud is trying to unravel the original meaning of totemism. At the same time, he shows that in order to interpret the phenomenon of culture the system of prohibitions, that is, taboos, is of great importance. Z. Freud believes that culture is a system of norms and prohibitions aimed at protecting society from a free individual.
Z. Freud considers taboo as a result of the ambivalence (duality) of feelings. We are talking about conscience as a gift that singled out a person from the animal kingdom and created a cultural phenomenon.
Z. Freud derived the phenomenon of conscience from the original sin committed by the great people - the murder of the primitive "father".
The sexual rivalry of children with their father led to the fact that at the origins of history they decided to kill the head of the clan.
However, this act did not go unnoticed for them.
A terrible crime aroused repentance. The children vowed never to commit such acts again.
So it happened, according to Z. Freud, the birth of man from an animal. Repentance also gave rise to a cultural phenomenon.
Z. Freud believed that he managed to find the source of social organization, moral norms and, finally, religion in the act of parricide.
He understood by human culture everything by which human life rises above animal conditions and how it differs from animal life.
Culture, in his opinion, demonstrates two sides of itself.
On the one hand, it covers all the knowledge and skills acquired by people that give a person the opportunity to master the forces of nature and receive material benefits from it to satisfy their needs.
On the other hand, it includes all those institutions that are necessary for streamlining the relationship of people, and especially for the distribution of achievable material goods.
Each culture, according to Z. Freud, is created by coercion and suppression of primary impulses.
At the same time, people have destructive, therefore, anti-social and anti-cultural tendencies.
This psychological fact is of decisive importance for the evaluation of human culture.
Cultural genesis, therefore, is conditioned by the imposition of prohibitions.
Thanks to them, culture many millennia ago began to separate from the primitive animal state.
We are talking about the primary urges of incest, cannibalism and passion for murder.
The main task of culture, according to Z. Freud, is to protect us from nature.
Z. Freud believed that religion has rendered great services to culture.
She actively contributed to the taming of asocial urges.
2.2. Analytical theory of culture K.G. cabin boy
Carl Gustav Jung considered the sources of culture to be the conscious and unconscious principles.
In many ways, following Z. Freud in psychotherapeutic practice, K. Jung differed significantly from him in understanding culture.
Differences between the theory of K. Jung and the classical psychoanalysis of culture:
1) rejection of Freud's pansexualism and the erotic interpretation of all cultural phenomena,
2) a modified personality structure and the concept of the "collective unconscious" along with the "individual unconscious";
3) in Freud, culture is included in the Super-I, which stands in opposition to the It (receptacle of the unconscious); C. Jung's conscious and unconscious complement each other.
Moreover, both of them are a source of culture.
Jung considered the structure of personality as consisting of three components:
1) consciousness - EGO - I;
2) personal unconscious - "IT";
3) "collective unconscious".
The personal unconscious contains complexes, this is an accumulation of emotionally charged thoughts, feelings and memories taken by an individual from his past personal experience or from a generic, hereditary experience.
These complexes can have a strong influence on the behavior of the individual.
Everyone knows that Napoleon was short and generally unsightly.
He disliked the tall, slender guardsmen utterly, and unless such a soldier was distinguished by absolutely insane courage, he could not get a promotion.
In Napoleon's headquarters, too, everyone was small and not too thin.
For example, a person with a power complex can expend a significant amount of psychic energy on activities that are directly or symbolically related to the theme of power.
The same may be true of a person who is under the strong influence of his mother, father, or under the power of money, sex, or some other kind of complexes.
Once formed, the complex begins to influence the behavior of a person and his attitude.
At the end of the XIX - the first half of the XX century. general attention was attracted by the psychoanalytic interpretation of culture, undertaken by 3. Freud, K. Jung and other scientists.
3. Freud
The ancestor of the psychoanalytic doctrine of culture is an Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud(1856-1939). He became one of those researchers who had a tremendous impact on all areas of scientific knowledge dealing with the problem of man. Some historians of science are even inclined to believe that this psychoanalyst revolutionized the views on human nature, discovering in it fundamentally new sources and resources of existence. To understand the essence of the Freudian concept of culture, it is necessary to understand his approach to the problem of man. According to Freud, man is not only a rational, cultural being, but also a natural being, driven by the unconscious instincts of an animal nature. Human consciousness consists of three main substructures that are in complex relationships - Ego (I), Id (It) and Super-Ego (Super-I). Id is a biological, natural, sensual component of the individual's consciousness, whose action is chaotic, does not know any rules or laws. The id leads a person to aggressive acts and enjoyment (eating, sleeping, sex). However, as a social being, a person cannot be guided only by blind desires, since there are other people and external restrictions. In order to learn to think, to extinguish the rough energy of the Id, to solve problems taking into account reality, there is an Ego that acts as a kind of executive body in the relationship of a person with society and a means of adapting to reality. But the Ego needs guidelines, norms, values, rules by which to live. They are not given from birth, but are acquired through the formation of the Super-ego, which is an internalized (acquired, internalized) version of the norms and standards of behavior accepted in society, in a goy or other culture. The super-ego as a process of socialization (inculturation) of the individual and society is a constant curbing of unconscious impulses and control over them. 3. Freud, revealing the essence of this process, introduces the concept of sublimation, which he considers as a mechanism for suppressing instincts and switching human energy from destructive goals to sublime ones, cultural. Sublimation becomes actually the primary source of cultural creativity. Culture is nothing but the result of sublimated instincts and drives, curbing human destructiveness and aggression. The culture is the more developed, the stronger the sublimation. At the same time, of course, a person is constantly between two fires - powerful instincts and culture imposed on him.
Culture, notes 3. Freud, is a social phenomenon, because the individual is its enemy, at least virtually, because it curbs and compels him. Culture is forced to be built on coercion and the prohibition of inclinations. Individual freedom is not an achievement of culture; it existed before culture and without culture. The development of culture just imposes restrictions on individual freedom (taboo). Culture embodies the power of the collective, the will of the majority. It began with taboos, social controls, social norms and sanctions governing sexual relations. 3. Freud believes that ancient man discovered that the possibilities of survival and improvement of his life are (literally and figuratively) in his own hands. So he limited himself as much as possible. Initially, the basis of culture was the external needs of the pile and the power of love, and love connected more closely than labor interests. Eros and Ananke became the forefathers of human culture. The emergence of religion, power, state, morality, norms is nothing but the result of processes arising from the restriction of sexual relations. The prehistoric drama of patricide due to the attraction of the son to the mother ("Oedipus complex") prompted the ancient people rethink life, idealize the father and come to the need for a social contract, taboo, totemism. The "Oedipus complex" played, from Freud's point of view, a decisive role in the emergence of many elements of culture and became a universal cultural and psychological constant of human life. In general, the theme of sexual relations, love in 3. Freud is not limited to the above. He believes that love is one of the fundamental foundations of culture, its greatest achievement. Sexual love gives a person happiness, the highest experiences, satisfaction, streamlines relations between people. In addition to sexual love, there is inhibited love (inhibited in the sense of purpose), or tenderness between brothers and sisters, parents and children. 3. Freud believes that women, with their demands for love, the interests of sexuality and the family, stood at the origins of culture. But subsequently, cultural activity increasingly becomes the lot of men, and the woman recedes into the background.
In an effort to comprehend the phenomenon of culture, to give it a definition, the Austrian scientist moves in line with the classical tradition (Greeks, IG Herder, G. Hegel). By culture, he means everything what distinguishes man from animal. It includes, Firstly, all the knowledge and skills accumulated by people, allowing them to master the forces of nature and take from her benefits to satisfy human needs, and secondly, vech? institutions, necessary for the ordering of human relationships. Freud does not distinguish between culture and civilization, as did many of his contemporaries. The content of culture is not only coercion, benefits, the means of obtaining them and the order of their distribution, but also the means that make up the psychological arsenal of culture. First of all, religious ideas. They are the highest value of culture, its precious asset. Religion can offer people something more than all other elements of culture (science, art, material culture). And a true believer will not allow his faith to be taken away from him, neither by arguments of reason, nor by prohibitions. It is also impossible to overthrow religion by violent measures. Freud calls religion the most important part of the mental inventory of culture. Religion is not a delusion, but an illusion that comes from human desires. It is similar, in a sense, to delusional ideas in psychiatry.
Considering the dynamic and value aspects of culture, 3. Freud states with disappointment that, despite great successes in cultural activity, especially in mastering nature, a person has not reached the fullness of happiness; Apparently, the ego is not his only condition. Even sex life largely ceases to be a source of happiness. Because of culture, a person has lost part of his happiness, but gained partial security, protection from aggression.
Everything in culture more visible is the tendency to switch the center of gravity from the extraction and distribution of material wealth to the phenomena of mental order. Although culture is created with great effort, it is vulnerable and easily destroyed, its individual elements (science and technology) can be used to destroy a person. The propensity for aggression is the biggest obstacle to the improvement of culture, one might say, its misfortune. Humanity is between the Scylla of social repression and Charybdis of complete liberation from instincts. It hardly needs to be said that a culture that leaves so many members dissatisfied and even leads to rebellion cannot expect to endure, nor does it deserve to. Human culture is still imperfect. Many people have very strong anti-cultural tendencies and manifestations of self-admiration for their own culture. Much in culture depends on individuals - leaders, politicians, who can perform both constructive and destructive roles.
3. Freud opposes all accusations against culture that our misfortunes associate with it. It is culture that gives man the means of protection from threatening suffering. But the socio-cultural evolution is very slow and meets the stubborn resistance of hostile forces. Criticism of culture does not mean rejection of it, but the need for its perfection, the ever greater satisfaction of our needs. True, culture in its essence is such that not everything in it can be made perfect, and not everything is done as quickly as one would like.
Reflecting on the fate of culture, 3. Freud does not try to be a prophet, a know-it-all. The scientist does not even seek to give it a general assessment, refrains from interpreting culture as the most precious human asset, leading to unprecedented perfections. He is ready to listen to any critic of culture and be an impartial participant in the discussion. Freud modestly explains this by saying that he does not know this subject very well, he is not sure of many things. “All I know with certainty is that value judgments are inevitably guided by people’s desires, their desire for happiness, their attempts to back up their illusions with arguments,” he writes in Dissatisfaction with Culture. Fatal for the human race, it seems to me, is the question: will it be possible - and to what extent - to curb on the path of culture the attraction to aggression and self-destruction, leading to the destruction of human existence.
Now people in dominating the forces of nature have gone so far that they can destroy each other, down to the last person. Thanatos (god of death) can take over the minds of people. It remains to be hoped that another of the "heavenly authorities" - the eternal Eros (the god of love) - will exert his strength in order to defend his rights in the fight against an equally immortal enemy. But who knows which side will win, who can foresee the outcome of the struggle?
You can get acquainted with the cultural ideas of 3. Freud in more detail by reading his following works: “Totem and Taboo”, “I and It”, “The Future of an Illusion”, “Dissatisfaction with Culture”.