Das Unbehagen in der Kultur

This seminar introduces a close reading of Freud’s 1930 treatise, exploring the structural antagonism between individual drive and the demands of the collective. In the current American political landscape, characterized by intensifying polarizations and the shifting boundaries of the commons, Freud’s insights into the cultural superego and the aggressive underside of communal bonds take on a renewed, albeit ambiguous, urgency. We will examine how the renunciation of drives—once considered the price of entry into civilization—is being renegotiated in a digital and fragmented social field.