Eros and Civilization (edit title/settings)

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• The death instinct is destructiveness not for its own sake, but for the relief of tension. The descent toward death is an unconscious flight from pain and want. It is an expression of the eternal struggle against suffering and repression.

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• The methodical sacrifice of libido, its rigidly enforced deflection to socially useful activities and expressions, is culture.

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• As the production of wasteful and destructive goods is discontinued (a stage which would mean the end of capitalism in all its forms) - the somatic and mental mutilations inflicted on man by this production may be undone.

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• Scientific management of instinctual needs has long since become a vital factor in the reproduction of the system: merchandise which has to be bought and used is made into objects of the libido; and the national Enemy who has to be fought and hated is distorted and inflated to such an extent that he can activate and satisfy aggressiveness in the depth dimension of the unconscious.

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• And the past continues to claim the future: it generates the wish that the paradise be re-created on the basis of the achievements of civilization.

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• The system has its weakest point where it shows its most brutal strength: in the escalation of its military potential (which seems to press for periodic actualization with ever shorter interruptions of peace and preparedness).

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• This process achieves the socially necessary desexualization of the body: the libido becomes concentrated in one part of the body, leaving most of the rest free for use as the instrument of labor.

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• It is not the struggle of Eros against Thanatos, because the established society too has its Eros: it protects, perpetuates, and enlarges life. And it is not a bad life for those who comply and repress. But in the balance, the general presumption is that aggressiveness in defense of life is less detrimental to the Life Instincts than aggressiveness in aggression.

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• The fact that the reality principle has to be re-established continually in the development of man indicates that its triumph over the pleasure principle is never complete and never secure.

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• Western civilization has always glorified the hero, the sacrifice of life for the city, the state, the nation; it has rarely asked the question of whether the established city, state, nation were worth the sacrifice.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York
• London
• Nirvana
• Paris
• Leipzig

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Herbert Marcuse (Author)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 301

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Psychology & Counseling › Psychoanalysis
• Books › Nonfiction › Philosophy › Modern
• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Sociology