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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. What does Freud say is hidden from the super-ego?

2. What does Freud say a man feels as a result of a cultural super-ego?

3. What objection does Freud make against the Communist promise of economic equality?

4. What does Freud say the feeling of guilt expresses?

5. What animal does Freud say man is to his fellow man?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Freud characterize the opposition of egoism and altruism?

2. How does Freud explain the origin of remorse?

3. How does Freud characterize the traditional view of the extremes of pleasure and pain in love?

4. What conclusion does Freud’s discussion of the Golden Rule lead him to make about human nature?

5. What resistance does Freud offer to the notion that he should love his neighbor as himself?

6. How do sadism and masochism reveal the interplay between Eros and death instincts, in Freud's account?

7. What does Freud mean when he says that the problem of guilt as “the most important problem in the evolution of civilization”?

8. How does Freud characterize the mindset of people who do not appreciate the reality he is describing, of hostility as a fundamental force of human nature?

9. How does Freud describe the super-ego?

10. What does Freud say society does in order to accommodate the traits he sees in human nature?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the most important plot points in Civilization and Its Discontents. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 2

Write an evaluative review of Civilization and Its Discontents. What is this book’s place in culture? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

Essay Topic 3

How would you rewrite Civilization and Its Discontents, if you were to adapt it and make it your own. What part of the book would you preserve? What part would you change? Explain your motivation for the changes you would make.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,050 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample