Freud had an interesting idea, civilization suppresses certain innate human characteristics; however, his explanation fell flat for me because they were based on mostly assumptions and great leaps were made to support the claims. I can agree with Freud that civilization does suppress certain innate human characteristics for the benefit of the group, but I believe that is done to protect the human species as a whole. Civilizations exist to civilize man. May be I am biased because I enjoy civilization; it is also true that I have benefited greatly from this social structure and many others too (Freud also). He did mention in is work how humans have made remarkable tools for ourselves.
A major reason I could not fully accept his claims broadly was he attempted to relate it to early human sexual development. This, to me, was tangential and did not aid his belief in the slightest. Especially how he broadly pained love as only sensual not even attempting to consider others’ concept of love. I can agree with Freud that there overall is one love meaning that can be connected to all people or things one loves; they are not all sensual though. I can love my parents, girlfriend, and friend the same because if I truly love them all I want them to be respected, protected, provided for, and safe. I agree with Freud that children can have an appreciation of the qualities and/or characteristics of the parent they admire the most and look for those qualities in a mate but children can also find qualities and/or characteristics that they do not admire from said parent and avoid those. Referring to women as sexual objects did not assist his claim too. He neglected to include the notion, obvious to any heterosexual man, that a man can love the woman he has chosen as his mate more than just sexually. Of course sexual attraction is important to men but Freud only viewed the love between a man and woman as transactional.
Civilization does hinder certain sexually taboo behaviors to be hidden from the public. My notion is though that most sexual behaviors humans engage in is private and should be. Most people do not enjoy others love as much as the ones engaging in it. I can definitely see how for homosexual couples their love is hidden from the public but Freud never touched on this matter. I believe that the most sexually suppressed and repressed group were and currently in some parts of the world are homosexuals. Most of modern civilizations outside of the United States and European countries deny homosexual relations and actively destroy all concepts of such relations from the public. I can give it to Freud for acknowledging sexual suppression but he did not connect it to the group who were/are the most sexually demonized.
