"Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness

1908 article by Sigmund Freud June 2017 June 2017 "Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (de Die „kulturelle“ Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervösität) is an article published by Sigmund Freud in 1908, in the journal Sexual-Probleme ("Sexual Problems").Freud Sigmund Sigmund Freud Die "kulturelle" Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervosität "Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness de Gesammelte Werke [Collected Works] VII 1999 Fischer Verlag Frankfurt on Main 141–167 Freud 2009 Referencing Christian von Ehrenfels' distinction between cultural and natural sexual morality, Freud explains the etiological significance of cultural sexual morality as a reason for neurosis. At the beginning, Freud states that cultural sexual mores impose constraints on the individual, which can cause damage to the person, which in turn threatens the culture as a whole. While von Ehrenfels argues primarily on the basis of Social Darwinism, saying social sexual morality may prevent male sexual selection in reproduction, Freud focuses on the consequences of socially-imposed repression of the sexual instinct as a cause of neurosis.However, Freud does not contradict Ehrenfels on this point, thereby supporting the latter's social Social Darwinist model. Culture is based on renunciation of drives. There is therefore a tension between a person's body, which seeks fulfilment of drives, and the demands of culture to renounce desire. Those who cannot conform to these requirements imposed by society are either viewed as criminals and perverts - if they cannot fulfil society's demand for renunciation - or escape into neurosis when the drives are suppressed to such an extent that neurotic substitute pleasures are developed in their stead. Neurosis is thus the negative counterpart of perversion, "because they [neurotics] have the same appetites as the positive perverts in a 'repressed' state."Freud 1908 120At this point Freud comments on the gender differences between neurosis and perversion, and writes of neurosis in women and perversion in men. This is explained by a weaker sex drive in women. However, Freud himself states that as a woman is subject to a more strict upbringing and rigorous instruction than a man, she needs to practice more abstinence than a man. Nevertheless, he interprets the "weak sex drive" in women as a biological fact and not a result of socialization. Freud said that the "perverse" part of the libido is caused by a disturbance in development. The libido was originally meant for deriving pleasure, not only at the genitals but also at other erogenous zones; but education has the purpose of limiting autoeroticism and directing love towards objects other than oneself, finally achieving the "primacy of genitals put into the service of procreation".Freud 1908 118 Thus Freud was one of the first people who said that sexuality by itself does not generate any internal conflict, and explained that the conflict arises only through interaction with the outside world, with its social norms and its expectation of repression of instincts, which leads to disease (repression thesis). The suppressed perverse drives are ideally channeled through sublimation and harnessed for cultural work. The sex drive in humans is aperiodicFreud 2009 64Here Freud goes back to referring to the smell stimulus and the taboo of menstruation. and is divorced from reproduction. Therefore, it can be metonymically shifted and applied to other areas. Thus, culture benefits to a great extent - and is even dependent - on sexual energy that is redirected through sublimation. Therefore, Freud concluded that a complete renunciation of the sex drive is detrimental to culture. Abstinence only produces "brave weaklings",Freud 1908 125Freud 1908 128This statement underlines all sorts of remarks by Freud on homosexuality and masturbation, which allegedly lead to impotence in marriage. but not great thinkers with bold ideas.At this point there is a conflict with the goal of psychotherapy: Perversion is to be "cured", but at the same time the therapist is also aware that perversion is useful for culture. Freud thus describes the dilemma of culture, which simultaneously calls for renunciation while still needing the sexual instinct to preserve itself. The repression model that imposes cultural sexual morality should therefore be abandoned in favor of a sublimation, displacement, and distribution model of sexual energies. Human sexuality Notes References Freud Sigmund 1908 Die "kulturelle" Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervosität "Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness de Sexual-Probleme [Sexual Problems] 4 3 107–129 Freud Sigmund Die "kulturelle" Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervosität "Civilized" Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness de Das Unbehagen in der Kultur und andere kulturtheoretische Schriften [ Civilization and Its Discontents and other works on cultural theory] 2009 Fischer Verlag Frankfurt on Main 109–132 9783596902071 External links Full text in German Excerpts on Google Books (2014. 978-1-473-39626-5. 1-47339626-3) autocollapse Category:Essays by Sigmund Freud Category:1908 essays Category:Sexuality Category:Sexuality and society