Civilization And Its Discontent

Watching the Breaking Bad series helped me understand how one's superego can deteriorate into their id following Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Walter White, the anti hero, takes us on a journey which vividly illustrates Freud’s thesis. From watching the series and reading critiques on the Freudian aspect, I will develop my own report on:

Civilization: The West and the Rest, presented by Niall Ferguson, is a documentary in which Ferguson reveals what he calls the six killer applications which has helped Western civilization dominate over everyone else. These six applications are competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. Ferguson asks many questions over the course of the series as well as provides examples as to how Western civilization has surpassed other nations and empires. Ferguson’s main question in each episode is, “If we lose our monopoly over apps like these, could Western civilization be consigned to history.” This paper will analyze Ferguson’s questions and the examples he provides for the killer applications of competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work, as well as his conclusions as to why the West has risen to the top, how the rest are passing up the West, as well as his conclusions to if the West can remain above the rest.

Sigmund freud's psychoanalytic theory states that the human personality is divided into three parts: the id, ego, and superego. The id is an instinctual part of the human psyche, it’s what makes us desire anything and everything. To counteract such a strong precence of desire the second part of the human psyche, the superego, follows a set of rules and regulations usually set out for us by socity. It’s your conscience telling you right from wrong, what’s acceptable and what is not acceptable. The id and the superego are always in constant battle within oneself every time a decision is made by the third part of the human psyche, the ego.

Throughout the rest of the book, Freud addresses the conflict between civilization and the individual. He starts with the fundamental paradox of civilization: we created civilization as a tool to protect ourselves from unhappiness; however it is our largest source of unhappiness. He also points out that contemporary technological advances have been a mixed blessing for human happiness. He also asks what the purpose of civilization is if it is not to satisfy the pleasure principal. He later concedes that civilization has to make compromises of happiness to fulfill its primary goal of bringing people into peaceful relationships with each other, by making them subject to a higher, communal authority.

Moreover this Super Ego is a development from both the ID and the Ego itself and represents our attempt to integrate values learnt from the society and from parents. Freud further explains that psychological health is maintained only when these three components are in balance. Any imbalance in between them leads to psychological disorders (Davey, 2011).Furthermore, Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, the unconscious and the conscious mind completes the formation of the major components of psychoanalytic theory. (Cherry, N.D)

Lastly, is Freud’s concept of id, ego, and superego,

Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud, fabricated a theory of personality in which personality is composed of three elements, the id, superego, and the ego, that work together to create complex human behaviors. First, the id describes a concept of one's impulse and drive for satisfaction and gratification. Next, the superego describes the concept of one’s conscience and internalized moral standards. It tries to control the immoral actions which the id strives for. Lastly, the ego is the combination of the id and the superego whose role is to maintain a healthy personality by expressing the id’s desires in an acceptable manner.

In the nineteenth century, Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud researched and presented his analysis of the three parts of the human personality. He determined that the personality consisted of three parts: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id represents the primary component of personality, present from birth, that contains a person’s needs and desires. The Ego illustrates the conscious mind that balances a person’s desire with aspects of reality. The Superego divides into two parts: the Ego Ideal and the Conscience. The Ego Ideal contains the morals for ideal and acceptable behavior, which correspond with emotions such as pride and honor. In contrast, the Conscience contains the morals for bad behavior, which correspond with emotions such as guilt and regret. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding represents the three parts of Freud’s personality theory through the characters of

Sigmund Freud is one of the most well known philosophers, neurologist, and psychologist of all time for many reasons. What Freud is mainly known for is his powerful thoughts and beliefs on morality along with human personality. Through out the two books, The Ego and the ID as well as Civilization and It’s Discontents, both written by Freud, he uses the terms ID, ego, and super-ego quite often. The ID could be described as the structure in one’s self that drives them to do what they do. It is what controls what we as humans desire or want in life. Freud’s main focus throughout these two books is the super-ego. According to Freud’s beliefs, the super-ego is an ego of such perfection. Freud displays the super-ego as something within

Part of Freud’s theory was that the Id, Ego and Super Ego were in constant conflict with each other. It involves the Id wanting immediate satisfaction and the super ego who wants the id/person to behave leaving the ego constantly trying to resolve the issue.

Many years ago, philosopher Sigmund Freud created the idea of your brain containing the Id, Ego, and Superego. His theory stated that the id, involves the instinctual urges operated on pleasure. The ego, is the rational part of your brain. The superego, operates on your morals. Henry Turner, is a character who lost majority of his memories from life and had to cope with all his new surroundings. Before the memory loss, Henry’s natural state was the ego, for he was successful and a logical man.

Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic theory focuses on our mental issues and behavior. He said that the origin of these problems can stem from beyond our consciousness, that our subconscious mind may not be aware of. Freud believed that the psyche was composed of three parts, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id represents our impetuous, feral desires that doesn’t focus on what’s acceptable or reasonable.

Part of Freud’s theory was that the Id, Ego and Super Ego were in constant conflict with each other. It involves the Id wanting immediate satisfaction and the super ego who wants the id/person to behave leaving the ego constantly trying to resolve the issue.

In the book, “Civilization: The West and the Rest,” author Niall Ferguson explores ancient and modern civilizations in an attempt to create an understanding of why they are important, what they are, why Europe and the United States dominate everyone else and asks the question, is Asia going to take the lead and leave the West trailing behind? Ferguson makes it clear that the West was not just given the superiority they had in economics, science, culture or military. He actually points out that for different amounts of time the Chinese, Ottoman, and Aztec civilizations had the most lavish lifestyles, strongest militaries, the wisest rulers, the longer lifespans, the best technology and many other things that the West were lacking in. Even so,

Freud believed that the human personality consisted of three interworking parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, the largest part of the mind, is related to desires and impulses and is the main source of basic biological needs. The ego is related to reasoning and is the conscious, rational part of the personality; it monitors behavior in order to satisfy basic desires without suffering negative consequences (Boundless.com). The superego, or conscience, develops through interactions with others (mainly parents) who want the child to conform to the norms of society (Boundless.com). Freud believed that our adult lives were shaped by childhood experiences, meaning that if children did not receive the proper nurturing, that the child would be stuck in that stage or behaviors