Abdinasir hussein
Soc 401
Professeor Roberts
Mid-term paper
Freud and Marx will never be forgotten as their legacies carry on through their respective theories. Each of their theories are extensive however, for the purposes of this essay I will compare and contrast their theory regarding freedom and the relationship between the individual and society. Freud and Marx, it can argued were both, as individuals, dissatisfied with their societies. In the process of discussing both Freud’s and Marx’s positions regarding these areas of focus their answers to the following question will be evident and their reasoning explained. Is it possible for human’s to create a society that would not cause so much suffering and, therefore maximize the happiness of all individuals in society? Or in other words, is the desire for freedom and pleasure of the individual irreconcilable with the needs and demands of society? Freud’s response is no. Marx’s answer is yes. In the following paragraphs I will provide a synopsis of Freud’s main argument in Civilization and It’s Discontent and in doing so explicate his support for his answer, then I will do the same for Carl Marx in the Marx / Engels Reader, and lastly I will discuss which theory I find more persuasive and why.
Since it is necessary to discuss and define key concepts and terms in order to understand Freud’s support for his answer I will give a synopsis of the book titled Civilization and It’s Discontents. Freud begins this book by defining the three parts of the psychic apparatus: the id, ego, and superego. The id is the unconscious; it includes everything at birth but later separates off an external world from itself. This external world or conscious is the ego. With the development or separation of the id and ego comes the development of the pleasure principle and reality principle. The id wants instant satisfaction of