Freud - Complete Works (726 page)

  
¹
Goethe, indeed, warns us that
‘nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair
days.’ But this may be an exaggeration.

Civilization And Its Discontents

4476

   It is no wonder if, under the
pressure of these possibilities of suffering, men are accustomed to
moderate their claims to happiness - just as the pleasure principle
itself, indeed, under the influence of the external world, changed
into the more modest reality principle -, if a man thinks himself
happy merely to have escaped unhappiness or to have survived his
suffering, and if in general the task of avoiding suffering pushes
that of obtaining pleasure into the background. Reflection shows
that the accomplishment of this task can be attempted along very
different paths; and all these paths have been recommended by the
various schools of worldly wisdom and put into practice by men. An
unrestricted satisfaction of every need presents itself as the most
enticing method of conducting one’s life, but it means
putting enjoyment before caution, and soon brings its own
punishment. The other methods, in which avoidance of unpleasure is
the main purpose, are differentiated according to the source of
unpleasure to which their attention is chiefly turned. Some of
these methods are extreme and some moderate; some are one-sided and
some attack the problem simultaneously at several points. Against
the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the
readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof
from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this
path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded
external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning
away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. There
is, indeed, another and better path: that of becoming a member of
the human community, and, with the help of a technique guided by
science, going over to the attack against nature and subjecting her
to the human will. Then one is working with all for the good of
all. But the most interesting methods of averting suffering are
those which seem to influence our own organism. In the last
analysis, all suffering is nothing else than sensation; it only
exists in so far as we feel it, and we only feel it in consequence
of certain ways in which our organism is regulated.

Civilization And Its Discontents

4477

   The crudest, but also the most
effective among these methods of influence is the chemical one -
intoxication. I do not think that anyone completely understands its
mechanism, but it is a fact that there are foreign substances
which, when present in the blood or tissues, directly cause us
pleasurable sensations; and they also so alter the conditions
governing our sensibility that we become incapable of receiving
unpleasurable impulses. The two effects not only occur
simultaneously, but seem to be intimately bound up with each other.
But there must be substances in the chemistry of our own bodies
which have similar effects, for we know at least one pathological
state, mania, in which a condition similar to intoxication arises
without the administration of any intoxicating drug. Besides this,
our normal mental life exhibits oscillations between a
comparatively easy liberation of pleasure and a comparatively
difficult one, parallel with which there goes a diminished or an
increased receptivity to unpleasure. It is greatly to be regretted
that this toxic side of mental processes has so far escaped
scientific examination. The service rendered by intoxicating media
in the struggle for happiness and in keeping misery at a distance
is so highly prized as a benefit that individuals and peoples alike
have given them an established place in the economics of their
libido. We owe to such media not merely the immediate yield of
pleasure, but also a greatly desired degree of independence from
the external world. For one knows that, with the help of this
‘drowner of cares’ one can at any time withdraw from
the pressure of reality and find refuge in a world of one’s
own with better conditions of sensibility. As is well known, it is
precisely this property of intoxicants which also determines their
danger and their injuriousness. They are responsible, in certain
circumstances, for the useless waste of a large quota of energy
which might have been employed for the improvement of the human
lot.

Civilization And Its Discontents

4478

   The complicated structure of our
mental apparatus admits, however, of a whole number of other
influences. Just as a satisfaction of instinct spells happiness for
us, so severe suffering is caused us if the external world lets us
starve, if it refuses to sate our needs. One may therefore hope to
be freed from a part of one’s sufferings by influencing the
instinctual impulses. This type of defence against suffering is no
longer brought to bear on the sensory apparatus; it seeks to master
the internal sources of our needs. The extreme form of this is
brought about by killing off the instincts, as is prescribed by the
worldly wisdom of the East and practised by Yoga. If it succeeds,
then the subject has, it is true, given up all other activities as
well - he has sacrificed his life; and, by another path, he has
once more only achieved the happiness of quietness. We follow the
same path when our aims are less extreme and we merely attempt to
control
our instinctual life. In that case, the controlling
elements are the higher psychical agencies, which have subjected
themselves to the reality principle. Here the aim of satisfaction
is not by any means relinquished; but a certain amount of
protection against suffering is secured, in that non-satisfaction
is not so painfully felt in the case of instincts kept in
dependence as in the case of uninhibited ones. As against this,
there is an undeniable diminution in the potentialities of
enjoyment. The feeling of happiness derived from the satisfaction
of a wild instinctual impulse untamed by the ego is incomparably
more intense than that derived from sating an instinct that has
been tamed. The irresistibility of perverse instincts, and perhaps
the attraction in general of forbidden things, finds an economic
explanation here.

Civilization And Its Discontents

4479

   Another technique for fending off
suffering is the employment of the displacements of libido which
our mental apparatus permits of and through which its function
gains so much in flexibility. The task here is that of shifting the
instinctual aims in such a way that they cannot come up against
frustration from the external world. In this, sublimation of the
instincts lends its assistance. One gains the most if one can
sufficiently heighten the yield of pleasure from the sources of
psychical and intellectual work. When that is so, fate can do
little against one. A satisfaction of this kind, such as an
artist’s joy in creating, in giving his phantasies body, or a
scientist’s in solving problems or discovering truths, has a
special quality which we shall certainly one day be able to
characterize in metapsychological terms. At present we can only say
figuratively that such satisfactions seem ‘finer and
higher’. But their intensity is mild as compared with that
derived from the sating of crude and primary instinctual impulses;
it does not convulse our physical being. And the weak point of this
method is that it is not applicable generally: it is accessible to
only a few people. It presupposes the possession of special
dispositions and gifts which are far from being common to any
practical degree. And even to the few who do possess them, this
method cannot give complete protection from suffering. It creates
no impenetrable armour against the arrows of fortune, and it
habitually fails when the source of suffering is a person’s
own body.¹

  
¹
When there is no special disposition in a
person which imperatively prescribes what direction his interests
in life shall take, the ordinary professional work that is open to
everyone can play the part assigned to it by Voltaire’s wise
advice. It is not possible, within the limits of a short survey, to
discuss adequately the significance of work for the economics of
the libido. No other technique for the conduct of life attaches the
individual so firmly to reality as laying emphasis on work; for his
work at least gives him a secure place in a portion of reality, in
the human community. The possibility it offers of displacing a
large amount of libidinal components, whether narcissistic,
aggressive or even erotic, on to professional work and on to the
human relations connected with it lends it a value by no means
second to what it enjoys as something indispensible to the
preservation and justification of existence in society.
Professional activity is a source of special satisfaction if it is
a freely chosen one - if, that is to say, by means of sublimation,
it makes possible the use of existing inclinations, of persisting
or constitutionally reinforced instinctual impulses. And yet, as a
path to happiness, work is not highly prized by men. They do not
strive after it as they do after other possibilities of
satisfaction. The great majority of people only work under the
stress of necessity, and this natural human aversion to work raises
most difficult social problems.

Civilization And Its Discontents

4480

   While this procedure already
clearly shows an intention of making oneself independent of the
external world by seeking satisfaction in internal, psychical
processes, the next procedure brings out those features yet more
strongly. In it, the connection with reality is still further
loosened; satisfaction is obtained from illusions, which are
recognized as such without the discrepancy between them and reality
being allowed to interfere with enjoyment. The region from which
these illusions arise is the life of the imagination; at the time
when the development of the sense of reality took place, this
region was expressly exempted from the demands of reality-testing
and was set apart for the purpose of fulfilling wishes which were
difficult to carry out. At the head of these satisfactions through
phantasy stands the enjoyment of works of art - an enjoyment which,
by the agency of the artist, is made accessible even to those who
are not themselves creative.¹ People who are receptive to the
influence of art cannot set too high a value on it as a source of
pleasure and consolation in life. Nevertheless the mild narcosis
induced in us by art can do no more than bring about a transient
withdrawal from the pressure of vital needs, and it is not strong
enough to make us forget real misery.

   Another procedure operates more
energetically and more thoroughly. It regards reality as the sole
enemy and as the source of all suffering, with which it is
impossible to live, so that one must break off all relations with
it if one is to be in any way happy. The hermit turns his back on
the world and will have no truck with it. But one can do more than
that; one can try to re-create the world, to build up in its stead
another world in which its most unbearable features are eliminated
and replaced by others that are in conformity with one’s own
wishes. But whoever, in desperate defiance, sets out upon this path
to happiness will as a rule attain nothing. Reality is too strong
for him. He becomes a madman, who for the most part finds no one to
help him in carrying through his delusion. It is asserted, however,
that each one of us behaves in some one respect like a paranoic,
corrects some aspect of the world which is unbearable to him by the
construction of a wish and introduces this delusion into reality. A
special importance attaches to the case in which this attempt to
procure a certainty of happiness and a protection against suffering
through a delusional remoulding of reality is made by a
considerable number of people in common. The religions of mankind
must be classed among the mass delusions of this kind. No one,
needless to say, who shares a delusion ever recognizes it as
such.

  
¹
Cf. ‘Formulations on the Two
Principles of Mental Functioning’ (1911
b
), and Lecture
XXIII of my
Introductory Lectures
(1916-17).

Civilization And Its Discontents

4481

   I do not think that I have made a
complete enumeration of the methods by which men strive to gain
happiness and keep suffering away and I know, too, that the
material might have been differently arranged. One procedure I have
not yet mentioned - not because I have forgotten it but because it
will concern us later in another connection. And how could one
possibly forget, of all others, this technique in the art of
living? It is conspicuous for a most remarkable combination of
characteristic features. It, too, aims of course at making the
subject independent of Fate (as it is best to call it), and to that
end it locates satisfaction in internal mental processes, making
use, in so doing, of the displaceability of the libido of which we
have already spoken. But it does not turn away from the external
world; on the contrary, it clings to the objects belonging to that
world and obtains happiness from an emotional relationship to them.
Nor is it content to aim at an avoidance of unpleasure - a goal, as
we might call it, of weary resignation; it passes this by without
heed and holds fast to the original, passionate striving for a
positive fulfilment of happiness. And perhaps it does in fact come
nearer to this goal than any other method. I am, of course,
speaking of the way of life which makes love the centre of
everything, which looks for all satisfaction in loving and being
loved. A psychical attitude of this sort comes naturally enough to
all of us; one of the forms in which love manifests itself - sexual
love - has given us our most intense experience of an overwhelming
sensation of pleasure and has thus furnished us with a pattern for
our search for happiness. What is more natural than that we should
persist in looking for happiness along the path on which we first
encountered it? The weak side of this technique of living is easy
to see; otherwise no human being would have thought of abandoning
this path to happiness for any other. It is that we are never so
defenceless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly
unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love. But this
does not dispose of the technique of living based on the value of
love as a means to happiness. There is much more to be said about
it.