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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. How does Freud characterize the phenomena he is describing?

2. What does Freud quote the poet Schiller as saying make the world go round?

3. Who does Freud say the savage blames if bad things happen to him?

4. What does Freud say is the outcome of the struggle between libido and the interests of self-preservation?

5. How does Freud describe society relationship with sexuality?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Freud mean when he says that hunger and love make the world go around?

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

3. How does Freud characterize the super-ego’s cultural function?

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

5. What difficulty does Freud say he would expect in any analysis that sought to analyze society’s neuroses?

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

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

8. How does Freud describe the super-ego?

9. Where does Freud say the feeling of guilt originates?

10. In what way does Freud say that primitive man was indeed happier than civilized man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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