SOC 2112 Chapter Notes - Chapter 17: Libido, False Consciousness, Class Consciousness

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2112
• Professor: Joseph Sawan

Document Summary

Freud on the development of society and civilization. Human nature & character structure: he perceived the individual as an organism that was driven by an instinctual energy (cid:449)hat he ter(cid:373)ed as (cid:862)li(cid:271)ido(cid:863). He states that professional activity provides a source of satisfaction that is considered special if it is one that is freely chosen. Furthermore, he indicates that there are two contradictory internal processes of human behaviour. In biological matters they work against each other or combine: eros establish greater unities and preserve them (bring them together, destructive instinct undo connections and destroy things (also known as the death instinct). These instincts represent that forces that are assumed to exist behind the tensions that are caused by the needs of the id. They represent the demands of mental life, the cause of all activity. Furthermore, they lie at the very core of individual human personality, and through this structure relate themselves to the external world.