Civilization and its Discontents

By Freud, Sigmund, James Strachey (Trans. and Ed.)
W. W. Norton, 1984, Paperback, 112 pp., ISBN: 0393301583, $10.95

Civilization and Its Discontents may be Sigmund Freud's best-known work.

For the 75th anniversary, a new edition of the seminal work with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand.

Originally published in 1930, it seeks to answer ultimate questions: What influences led to the creation of civilization? How did it come to be? What determines its course? In this seminal volume of twentieth-century thought, Freud elucidates the contest between aggression, indeed the death drive, and its adversary eros. He speaks to issues of human creativity and fulfillment, the place of beauty in culture, and the effects of repression. From the publisher