I believe in Sigmund Freud’s “Civilizations and Its Discontents”, he spoke on some agreeable perspectives regarding societies and civilizations to the average individual, but he also spoke on some disagreeable perspectives when it comes to connecting the individual to society. Freud starts off by expressing his confusion about the happiness of the average man and why it isn’t achievable. His first reason why “men can’t be happy” is because society/civilization is based on religion. He expresses that the commandments don’t make sense to him. Freud’s ultimate conclusion is that men can’t be happy because religion is the basis of society. I personally agree with this on a specific level. I feel that when societies are based on religion the people who lead the civilization or society tend to conform the religion to make themselves seem at a higher position than they actually are or conform the religion to justify their immoral actions. So I do believe that basing a society on religion isn’t the best idea unless everyone including the leader or government is following it exactly as it’s written in whatever holy book is being followed. I notice that Freud only talked about Christianity when there are many other religions as well as different types of Christians, his reasoning for the religious civilizations isn’t on the “cause and effect” perspective of how the religion is used but rather the commandments that he doesn’t understand. Which I feel isn’t a valid argument, it’s more of a biased and ignorant argument.
Later in Freud’s argument, he expresses the family unit of a couple and their sexual relationship before and after they have a child together. He expresses that the sexual attraction between the woman and the man is strong and once they produce a child, the child disrupts their sexual attraction between the parents because they build a sexual relationship with the parent. I agree but I don’t agree with this to a certain level because the sexual attraction could change between the parents due to the child because of different circumstances, but not for the reason that the child builds a sexual relationship with the parent. The sexual attraction disruption can branch from the child by not having enough time together, exhaustion, etc. I think the sexual attraction to their parents is something Freud experienced growing up, I wouldn’t say that everyone experiences this.
