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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Freud say the religious feeling comes from?

2. What does Freud say is the danger of intoxication?

3. Who does Freud say we act like, when we substitute a wish-fulfillment for an unbearable aspect of the world?

4. How does Freud say “extra-genital forms of satisfaction” are “interdicted”?

5. How does Freud characterize the artist’s joy in creating, relative to other pleasures?

Short Essay Questions

1. What role does dirt play, in civilization, according to Freud?

2. How does Freud say instincts react when they are resisted through intoxication or through other forms of avoidance?

3. What does Freud use the city of Rome as a metaphor for?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of denying the world, in Freud's account?

5. How does Freud describe the evolution of the adult ego?

6. How does Freud characterize modern progress?

7. What misconception does Freud dispel at the end of Chapter 3?

8. What does Freud say is the typical attitude about civilization’s disadvantages?

9. How does Freud describe the effect of changes in the human olfactory sense on civilization?

10. What does Freud say is the end-result of a civilization?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is the audience for Civilization and Its Discontents? What is the ideal reader for Civilization and Its Discontents likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 2

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 3

What topics would you like to research further, after reading Civilization and Its Discontents. Describe why additional research or reading would be beneficial to an understanding of this book. Propose a list of articles or books you would read in order to get a better handle on Civilization and Its Discontents.

(see the answer keys)

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