Eros and Civilisation
I saw this book referenced in another which I read earlier in the year thought it looked interesting and put it on my Amazon wish list. Having received for christmas and having flicked through it I realised that it's a bit more heavy duty than a quick skip through sex and society and is an analysis of Freudian thought as related to society and theory of freedom or liberty within society. Knowing nothing about Freud except that all men are obsessed with their mothers, apparently, and probably I'm incorrect in that perception, I start reading in trepidation with google to hand to understand new concepts that Herbert probably assumes his reader knows all about. To be honest my googling is minimal which is due to the clear way in which the concepts are introduced and explained rather than any previous knowledge on my part. I won't try and summarise the entire book but I'm immersed in Freudian concepts that I've only read about in name such as id, ego, superego and the pleasure and reality principles.
We start with how our instincts for pleasure have, necessarily, been repressed in order to keep us as individuals alive and therefore allowing society to flourish and we go on to how this internalised repression has developed into institutional societal repression to the extent that it's gone beyond it's original purpose, to allow us to survive as individuals and a species whilst still gaining pleasure, and moved into the realms of despotic control where a few gain maximum pleasure, as far as they can, whilst the rest of us suffer.
Much is made of the alienation of work and the theory seems to be that all productive work must be alienating to an extent as it's time spent not satisfying our basic instincts. I'm not sure I agree with that entirely but maybe that's because I've been conditioned to think that work is good as it helps society. Which is exactly the sort of repression of the id or basic instincts that Freud is talking about. He has a pessimistic view of civilisation as we needed repression of our instincts and also of ourselves as humans to progress and if we try to gain freedom the whole of society will unravel back to an anarchic state where everyone does just what they want to the detriment of both their long term survival and the detriment of others. Marcuse seems to be proposing a different future where as the amount of time we need to work to survive is reduced then we may become more collective as a society and sharing (to each as is their need) and gain individual freedom and happiness that way. This seems to be pointing to a communist / Marxist / socialist / collectivist anarchism future. There is still the issue of time and the fact that we can't attain true happiness as we know that time is limited and our happiness is fleeting. In fact remembering happy times is best because our memories don't put a timescale or end point in that happy memory. Death obviously comes into this regarding time and as we are likely to find happiness in being at one with our id, rather than struggling for survival, then finding gratification through peace, or nirvana, maybe the ultimate happiness. And death is the ultimate peacefulness.
The epilogue talks about psychotherapy and the fact that it's cures are so that one can operate within society which is necessarily repressive. Therefore it is to ensure that your personality, id, can operate within a sick society. Thereby teaching you to enforce repression on your free spirit or basic instincts. Therapy is therefore "a course in resignation" forcing your instinct, id, to be repressed enough to conform to the norm to enable it to survive society and implied that it gives up hope of full happiness. From this personal viewpoint as society becomes less repressive and libertarian then there will be less repression of your instincts and therefore we will become more content, perhaps even happy, within our freer society.
I've done what I said I wouldn't and summarised the book. Probably incorrectly but that's what I took out of it. It's very readable and at times I felt addicted as to a great novel. The references to greek heros, philosophers and woodland nymphs adds context and is entertainingly diverting. Enjoyable and very much food for thought, whether you agree with Freud or not. I'm still not sure that everything I do is a result of the first few years of life but the underlying theories ring true. In conclusion either depressing (society needs repression and it will only increase) or uplifting (society will tend towards being freer and collective) depending on what bits of Freuds' theories you take and how you apply them. I'm for the latter. The alternative is too depressing and represses my basic instinct to gain happiness and gratification.
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