In one of Freud’s most famous texts, Civilization and its Discontents, Freud analyzes the factors that push the creation and development of a civilization. From sexual desires to a craving for power, he compares the relationships between civilized and savage humans in an effort to portray the true meaning of a civilization. Freud utilizes counterarguments and allusions to Christianity and God to highlight the effects of human nature and function on the creation of a civilization.
Freud begins his essay by describing how all religion is based off an “oceanic” feeling that unlike Rolland, is not a human urge to feel united with the outside world, but rather an “infantile helplessness” (21). By using this method of bringing up a common misconception of humanity and their nature, analyzing it, and utilizing his views to show how it is a misconception, he portrays the true, savage nature of human beings that masked their true selves in an effort to form a civilization.
Later in the text, Freud states how "'little children do not like it' when there is talk of the inborn human inclination to 'badness', to aggressiveness and destructiveness, and so to cruelty as well. God has made them in the image of His own perfection" (79). Though Christianity shows how humans are born with original sin but also in the image of God, many disregard the negative, evil aspects of humanity in their religion and only focus on the Godly part that makes them seem like they are “civilized” human beings. In fact, Freud uses this allusion to highlight how people try to mask the savage parts of humanity with the civil parts, just as how Christians ignore their original evilness and sin.
As one of the most influential and famous psychoanalysts of all time, Freud brought up themes in Civilization and its Discontents that no one considered before. Through his use of counterarguments and allusions to Christianity, Freud truly reveals the dark nature behind humans and their “civil” societies.
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