PREVIEW-Episode 26: Freud on the Human Condition

Summary: Discussing Civilization and its Discontents (1930).<br> This is a 32-minute preview of our vintage 2 hr, 5-minute episode which you can buy at <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/product/ep-26-freud/" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/store</a> or <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/09/25/ep26-freud-citizens/" target="_blank">get for free</a> with PEL Citizenship (see <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership</a>). You can also purchase the full episode in the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/episode-26-freud-on-human/id884292111" target="_blank">iTunes Store</a>: Search for "Partially Examined Freud" and look under "Albums."<br> What's the meaning of life? Well, for Sigmund Freud, an objective purpose rises or falls with religion, which he thinks a matter of clinging to illusion, so to rephrase: what do we want out of life? To be happy, of course, yet he sees happiness as a matter of fulfillment of pent-up desires, meaning it's by its nature temporary. Yet we can't shake off its pursuit, and so we're in a bind, and have a number of strategies for obtaining some satisfaction: some compensation for what we have to repress in order to live in a society that forces us to repress our innate desires.<br> <a href="http://ia340931.us.archive.org/0/items/CivilizationAndItsDiscontents/freud_civilization_and_its_discontents.pdf" target="_blank">Read the book online</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393304515?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=theparexalif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0393304515">purchase it.</a><br> End song: "The Easy Thing" by <a href="http://newpeopleband.com/" target="_blank">New People</a> from The Easy Thing (2009).<br>