In becoming what we generally agree now to be “civilized” beings, humans have destroyed the happiness bestowed to them in their natural state. They have had a severe psychological burden laid upon them which has deteriorated and transformed their state into one of heightened anxiety. Having outlined Freud’s conception of the psyche, we can now begin to observe the distortion of the psyche, specifically the Id and Superego, which has taken place and intensified the anxiety felt by the “civilized man” to a great degree.
To become civilized, man must accept the societally agreed upon terms of civilized society. After all, what is a civilized person if not a person who follows the “rules” of civility? Through this process of the acceptance of standards, the Superego is not just developed as some may claim, but distorted from its original state. In a way it is given an increase of strength unknown to the uncivilized man. Through this gradual internalization of standards, which with time increase in both abundance and severity, the Superego’s ability to “tug” at the Ego and influence reality increases. As a consequence of this process, the strength of two parts of the Superego, the Ego-Ideal and Conscience, increase proportionally to each other. This means that as standards increase and are internalized, so is the guilt and displeasure inflicted when these standards are not met.
In the state of nature, the Id’s primal desires are desires which are natural to man’s existence. As a result, man’s desires in this state are as minimal as possible, limited to desires which are naturally occurring. However, with the development of civilization ultimately comes the development and expansion of the sciences, which in turn feeds the development of new “vices” which serve to become desires of the Id. In becoming civilized, man finds himself surrounded by an exponentially higher amount of desire, which he would not have incurred in his natural state. Through this process of increasing desire we can observe that the “tug” of the Id grows stronger as well. As a result of this increase in desire, we will naturally see an increase in the anxiety induced when left unfulfilled, leaving the civilized man in a more anxious state than the uncivilized.
The most important aspect of the relationship between civilization, the Id and the Superego however, is the Ego’s reconciliation of these growing demands. Imagine a chain connecting two oppositely moving vehicles, when the vehicles are close in distance the chain has slack, easily keeping both cars under control. However, as these vehicles increase in distance, more and more pressure is applied to the center links of the chain, which in this case is acting as a mediator between the two opposing forces. This is the phenomena I’m describing, as we become civilized and have increasing social demands placed on the Superego, and increased desire placed on the Id, the Ego’s ability to reconcile these growingly opposing forces will undoubtedly become less effective. This means that no matter what decision the Ego makes in trying to reconcile the civilized Man’s desire and his ideal self, there will always be either more guilt or anxiety induced than there would in man’s natural state. It is undeniable then that the more civilized we as a people become, the increasingly unhappy, anxious and guilty we become as well.
