Freud once referred to the human nature in terms of repressed sexual desires for the safety of societies (Freud, 1950; 1973; 2003; 2005; 2006; Storey, 2012). According to Freud, living in community means humans abandoning their sexual instincts in order to coexist with others (Freud, 1973). Freud’s major contribution to psychology is the understanding of the unconscious as a place, in the human psyche, where repress desires exist and can only be fitfully repressed (Freud, 1973; 2003; 2005; 2006). Through the lens of Sigmund Freud, his work on Psychoanalysis (1973), The Dreamwork (2006), Totem and Taboo (1950), Civilization and Its Discontents (2005), and The Uncanny (2003); this paper will describe the foundations of the unconscious and how …show more content…
According to his work, individuals’s phycological structure is the one responsible for the way that society is organized (Freud, 1950; 2003; 2005; 2006). Instincts and individual’s constant struggle to control them, are the main components of every society. Freud focused his research on primitive tribes and their psychic life, which were assumed to be an early stage of our own development (Diamond, 1995; Freud, 1950; Ritvo, 1995). Through the comparison of the psychology of primitive human groups and the psychology of the neurotic, Freud referred to the way that humans interact and create rules within their communities (Freud, 1950; 2003; 2005; 2006). For example, he analyzed the rules that primitive tribes had in terms of incestuous sexual relations (Freud, 1950). His work revealed that, even primitive individuals, have a specific social …show more content…
The construction of a symbol will prevent others from killing and setting their natural desires free (Freud, 1950; 1973). Individuals can only wish to be the leader/father. The symbol becomes the father that stands for admiration and hate (Freud, 1950). Freud’s analysis of primitive tribes, lead him to conclude that in totemism a natural and unconscious process takes place: a symbol (for example: an animal) substitutes the father/ leader in order to prevent others from killing him (Freud, 1950). Society’s order, religion, and every moral or social rule attempts to resolve the same problem: control of natural instincts. The resolution of this ambivalence is the one responsible for the first moral codes (Freud, 1950; 1973; 2003; 2005; 2006). The attachment to a totem is the foundation of all social