The animal drives become human instincts under the influence of the external reality. The vicissitudes of the instincts are the vicissitudes of the mental apparatus in civilization. Civilization begins when the primary objective – namely, integral satisfaction of needs – is effectively renounced. The instincts must therefore be deflected from their goal, inhibited in their aim. Their destructive force derives from the fact that they strive for a gratification which culture cannot grant: gratification as such and as an end in itself, at any moment. The uncontrolled Eros is just as fatal as his deadly counterpart, the death instinct.
#REALITY PRINCIPLE FREE#
Left free to pursue their natural objectives, the basic instincts of man would be incompatible with all lasting association and preservation: they would destroy even where they unite. However, such constraint is the very precondition of progress. Culture constrains not only his societal but also his biological existence, not only parts of the human being but his instinctual structure itself. According to Freud, the history of man is the history of his repression.
The concept of man that emerges from Freudian theory is the most irrefutable indictment of Western civilization and at the same time the most unshakable defense of this civilization. Frankfurt School: Eros and Civilization by Herbert MarcuseĮros and Civilization.