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SOCY 151: Foundations of Modern Social Theory

Lecture 15 - Freud on Sexuality and Civilization. Freud's brand of critical theory adds important dimensions; he argues that we can better understand our consciousness through the process of psychoanalysis - the talking cure, dream work, etc - and we can cure ourselves through this process as well. We discuss Freud's early days in Vienna developing psychoanalysis as a clinical approach alongside Jung, Ferenczi, and others in their tight-knit circle. They develop the ideas of the id, ego, and superego as well as the antithetical drives, the love drive (Eros) and the death drive (Thanatos). Later, Freud applies these concepts to society as a whole in his books Totem and Taboo, and Civilization and Its Discontents. His argument in Civilization and Its Discontents calls to mind Nietzsche; he argues that the repression of urges and drives allows civilization to bloom and flourish, but the same repression is problematic on the level of individual psychology as well as on the level of civilization.
(from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 15 - Freud on Sexuality and Civilization

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. The Importance of Nietzsche's Approach
[00:10:29] 2. Freud in a Historical Context
[00:14:06] 3. Psychoanalysis and Other Breakthroughs
[00:29:26] 4. "The Ego and the Id"
[00:40:02] 5. "Civilizations and Its Discontents"

References
Lecture 15 - Freud on Sexuality and Civilization
Instructor: Professor Ivan Szelenyi. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction
Lecture 02 - Hobbes: Authority, Human Rights and Social Order
Lecture 03 - Locke: Equality, Freedom, Property and the Right to Dissent
Lecture 04 - The Division of Powers- Montesquieu
Lecture 05 - Rousseau: Popular Sovereignty and General Will
Lecture 06 - Rousseau on State of Nature and Education
Lecture 07 - Utilitarianism and Liberty, John Stuart Mill
Lecture 08 - Smith: The Invisible Hand
Lecture 09 - Marx's Theory of Alienation
Lecture 10 - Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism (1)
Lecture 11 - Marx's Theory of Historical Materialism (cont.)
Lecture 12 - Marx's Theory of History
Lecture 13 - Marx's Theory of Class and Exploitation
Lecture 14 - Nietzsche on Power, Knowledge and Morality
Lecture 15 - Freud on Sexuality and Civilization
Lecture 16 - Weber on Protestantism and Capitalism
Lecture 17 - Conceptual Foundations of Weber's Theory of Domination
Lecture 18 - Weber on Traditional Authority
Lecture 19 - Weber on Charismatic Authority
Lecture 20 - Weber on Legal-Rational Authority
Lecture 21 - Weber's Theory of Class
Lecture 22 - Durkheim and Types of Social Solidarity
Lecture 23 - Durkheim's Theory of Anomie
Lecture 24 - Durkheim on Suicide
Lecture 25 - Durkheim and Social Facts