Civilization and Its Discontents
In Civilization and Its Discontents Freud extends and clarifies his analysis of religion; analyzes human unhappiness in contemporary civilization; ratifies the critical importance of the death drive theory; and contemplates the significance of guilt and conscience in everyday life. The result is Freud’s most expansive work, one wherein he discusses mysticism, love, interpretation, narcissism, religion,…
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Beyond the Pleasure Principle is Freud’s most philosophical and speculative work, exploring profound questions of life and death, pleasure and pain. In it Freud introduces the fundamental concepts of the “repetition compulsion” and the “death drive,” according to which a perverse, repetitive, self-destructive impulse opposes and even trumps the creative drive, or Eros. The work…
The Future of an Illusion
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, declared that religion is a universal obsessional neurosis in his famous work of 1927, The Future of an Illusion. This work provoked immediate controversy and has continued to be an important reference for anyone interested in the intersection of philosophy, psychology, religion, and culture. Included in this volume is…
Beyond the Pleasure Principle reviewed in Metapsychology
A review of Todd Dufresne and Gregory C. Richter’s edition of Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle has just appeared in Metapsychology. See the review here and take a look at their second collaboration for the series, an edition of The Future of an Illusion that was just published this month!