The Man of the Bad Conscience

Linked from Essay II, Section 22: "...this man of the bad conscience has seized upon the presupposition of religion so as to drive his self-torture to its most gruesome pitch of severity and rigor."

What means does civilization employ in order to inhibit the aggressiveness which opposes it, to make it harmless, to get rid of it, perhaps? [...] His aggressiveness is introjected, internalized; it is, in point of fact, sent back to where it came from -- that is, it is directed towards his own ego. There it is taken over by a portion of the ego, which sets it over against the rest of the ego as super-ego, and which now, in the form of 'conscience', is ready to put into action against the ego the same harsh aggressiveness that the ego would have liked to satisfy upon other, extraneous, individuals. The tension between the harsh super-ego and the ego that is subjected to it, is called by us the sense of guilt; it expresses itself as a need for punishment."

From Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, VI, p. 70

Reader's Questions

• Do Nietzsche and Freud agree on the origin and consequences of "conscience" and "guilt"?
• What role does religion play in Freud's analysis of the role of guilt in civilization?

RETURN TO ESSAY TWO