The past of an illusion and the future of a tragedy

Abstract

From the Freudian developments about civilization, we will question how, in view of the imminence of a tragic future, the question of alternative forms of enjoyment can originate a less hostile society. Starting from notions such as death drive, aggressiveness and Super-Self, we will see that the rationalization of affections does not claim our destructiveness. From the antinomy between Eros and Thanatos, Freud calls for the independence of aggressive drives, understanding that civilization is experienced as malaise. Pointing out how the other's desires are implicated in ours, we will see that aggressiveness establishes the Super-Self, whose function is to impose on the Self the same hostility that the latter would wish to satisfy on others. Exercising internal authority, the Super-Self goes through subjectivity, indicating that there is nothing that does not guarantee our own catastrophe. But if civilization is built on the rest of individual freedom, then perhaps accountability for desire will allow us to think about new forms of subjectivity and, perhaps, in a less hostile society.