Sigmund's Shorts – Why are we so Miserable? On Freud's 'Civilisation and its Discontents'

Freud Museum London's Learning Manager, Stefan Marianski gives a summary of Freud's 'Civilisation and its Discontents'.

Originally published in 1930, Civilisation and its Discontents, seeks to answer several questions fundamental to human society and its organization: What influences led to the creation of civilization? Why and how did it come to be? What determines civilization's trajectory? Freud's theories on the effect of the knowledge of death on human existence and the birth of art are central to this work.

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0:00 - Introduction
0:47 - The Oceanic Feeling
3:39 - Sources of misery
6:51 - How we try to cope with misery
8:27 - Civilisation causes misery
9:51 - Freud's definition of civilisation
11:53 - The tension between the individual and society
14:19 - The commandment to 'Love Thy Neighbour'
17:22 - Introducing the superego
18:23 - What creates the superego?
20:00 - What's disturbing about the superego?
25:49 - What happens when the tension becomes unbearable?