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Sigmund FreudThe Future of an Illusion
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1927A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Chapter 1 Summary
In the first chapter of The Future of an Illusion, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud introduces the core ideas that his investigation of religion will build upon. In the opening paragraph, Freud states that his goal is both to consider the “origins” of civilization and “to ask what further fate lies before it and what transformations it is destined to undergo” (5). Freud notes that such an inquiry is full of numerous “difficulties,” as it requires an expansive knowledge of human history, rather than expert knowledge in a single academic discipline.
Freud then offers his definition of civilization. According to Freud, one must understand civilization as the process by which humanity has overcome its “animal” instincts. Freud argues that humanity has done this in two ways: by using knowledge to extract wealth and resources from the natural world, and by creating a governmental and social system for spreading such wealth to all a society’s individuals. Society thus exists to tame each individual through its codes and laws, reining in individuals and teaching them how to behave.
At the core of Freud’s argument is the assumption that individuals are governed by base instincts and desires, which they are reluctant to disavow without outside force. Without civilization’s laws and rules, humans would act selfishly and only in their own interest, leading to killing and other violent acts. Freud argues that civilization must be understood as “something which was imposed on a resisting majority by a minority” of individuals who understood the need to rein in humanity’s violent nature (6). However, as civilization exists to keep individuals from following their desires, each individual develops a sense of anger towards society and becomes “an enemy of civilization” (6). Freud believes that this relation between the individual and civilization is an inherent fact of society and does not believe that any individual would behave morally without exterior “coercion.” While some argue that a different type of culture and education would result in individuals who are capable of autonomously following social rules without force, Freud is doubtful that such a society is possible.
Chapter 2 Summary
Freud writes that while much of civilization is based around compelling individuals to work and create wealth, another of its guiding principles is to shape individuals' psyches so that they follow society’s rules and morals. According to Freud, such methods are known as “the mental assets of civilization” and consist of three main parts: “frustration,” which describes individuals’ feelings after their “instinct cannot be satisfied”; “prohibition,” which is a law that forbids individuals from following a certain instinct; and “privation,” which refers to “the condition which is produced by the prohibition” (10).
While some prohibitions apply to the entirety of society, others are directed towards specific classes of individuals. Freud believes that the most general forms of prohibition—against the “instinctual wishes […] of incest, cannibalism, and lust for killing” (10)—emerged at the dawn of civilization, as they were some of the first crimes to be outlawed. As these desires were instincts in early humans, Freud argues that such prohibitions caused humans to develop angry feelings towards civilization. Over the course of human history, these external prohibitions have become “internalized,” so that one’s own psyche, what Freud refers to as “man’s super-ego" (11), forbids one from following through on these instinctual desires. While those individuals who have internalized society’s rules become the greatest advocates for society’s development, Freud notes that there are still a number of people who only refrain from murdering or other violent behavior due to the existence of laws. Such criminally prone individuals develop a “hostility” towards civilization, and many will seek to outright destroy it.
Freud then moves to discussing the role of art in civilization, describing art as a form of “mental wealth.” While art is often seen as espousing certain of society’s “ideals,” Freud does not believe that these ideals exist prior to the creation of artworks. Instead, Freud argues that a civilization bases its ideals on whatever artworks it has already created. In turn, societies develop a “narcissistic nature” in which they believe their ideals to be better than those of another society’s. Such feelings of patriotism form a means by which society’s poorest and most oppressed members can feel affinity towards their society, even as they harbor hostile feelings towards it.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Though the focus of Freud’s The Future of an Illusion is on the role that religion has played in society (and whether it will continue to play this role), the opening chapters of his investigation barely mention religion at all. Instead, Freud’s focus in these chapters is on a general discussion of “civilization,” which for Freud encompasses all of the various ways that human beings have formed societies with the purpose of elevating themselves above the natural world. Freud focuses on investigating the origins of civilization as his analysis of religion will be based upon arguing that religion develops to fulfill certain societal needs. As such, Freud will have to begin his argument by exploring how civilization arises and the relation individuals have to civilization.
For Freud, civilization essentially revolves around the “compulsion to work” (10), creating a set of communally agreed upon laws that regulate how individuals can extract financial wealth from the natural environment that surrounds them, as well as the subsequent distribution of that wealth across society. However, Freud argues that civilization must also act upon individuals’ interior psyches, creating systems that keep individuals behaving and affectively bind them to the civilization they are a part of. In The Future of an Illusion, Freud will use his insight as a psychoanalyst to investigate civilization’s mental operations, arguing that religion is a key institution through which civilization influences people’s psyches.
At the core of Freud’s argument are several assumptions about human nature that are deeply influenced by Freud’s background as a psychoanalyst. According to the discipline of psychoanalysis (which Freud founded), the human psyche is governed by a set of instincts or drives, which he or she attempts to fulfill. However, many of these “instinctual wishes” are violent or aggressive, such as “incest, cannibalism, and lust for killing” (10). As fulfilling these violent instincts would lead to harming other individuals, civilization arises through the creation of laws to prohibit these actions. As such, civilization unites individuals in a community based around the collective repression of one’s most base instincts.
However, the result of such prohibitions against instinctual desires is a feeling of “frustration,” and Freud argues that most individuals develop a negative perception of civilization. In Freud’s view, the result of this perception is an inevitable schism between a civilization and its individual members: “[…] every individual is virtually an enemy of civilization, though civilization is supposed to be an object of universal human interest” (6). In the chapters that follow, Freud will argue that religion exists to emotionally bind individuals to civilization, in turn preventing their destructive desires from coming to fruition.
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