Psychoanalysis In Culture and Society 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In 'Totem and Taboo,' Freud argues that the prohibition against killing the totem animal parallels which psychological phenomenon?
- Repression of aggressive drives toward the father (Correct answer)
- Sublimation of sexual energy into art
- Projection of guilt onto a scapegoat
- Displacement of anxiety onto phobic objects
Correct answer: Repression of aggressive drives toward the father
Freud saw the totem taboo as a cultural displacement of the Oedipal prohibition on killing the primal father.
Question 2: Freud's concept of 'civilization and its discontents' rests primarily on the idea that culture demands:
- Gratification of all instinctual drives
- Renunciation of instinctual satisfaction in exchange for security (Correct answer)
- Complete suppression of the superego
- Expression of the death drive through war
Correct answer: Renunciation of instinctual satisfaction in exchange for security
Freud argued civilization requires individuals to sacrifice instinctual gratification, producing chronic discontent.
Question 3: Which psychoanalytic concept did Herbert Marcuse use to critique modern industrial society in 'Eros and Civilization'?
- Surplus repression (Correct answer)
- Primary narcissism
- Reaction formation
- Oceanic feeling
Correct answer: Surplus repression
Marcuse coined 'surplus repression' to describe repression beyond what civilization minimally requires, imposed by dominant interests.
Question 4: Freud's 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego' explains group cohesion primarily through:
- Shared rational self-interest
- Libidinal ties between members and to the leader (Correct answer)
- Collective superego formation
- Displacement of death drive onto outgroups
Correct answer: Libidinal ties between members and to the leader
Freud argued that groups are held together by erotic, libidinal bonds directed at the leader and fellow members.
Question 5: In psychoanalytic social theory, 'social character' as developed by Erich Fromm refers to:
- The collective superego of a nation
- The shared core character structure that binds individuals to their society (Correct answer)
- Projection of individual conflicts onto social institutions
- The archetype of the collective unconscious
Correct answer: The shared core character structure that binds individuals to their society
Fromm defined social character as the emotional attitudes shared by members of a society that serve its economic and social needs.
Question 6: The psychoanalytic interpretation of anti-Semitism and prejudice offered by Adorno and colleagues in 'The Authoritarian Personality' emphasized:
- Rational economic grievances as the main driver
- Projection of the subject's own unacceptable impulses onto outgroups (Correct answer)
- Collective mourning for primal horde losses
- Inherited racial memories stored in the unconscious
Correct answer: Projection of the subject's own unacceptable impulses onto outgroups
Adorno et al. argued that authoritarian prejudice involves projecting one's own repressed impulses onto stigmatized groups.
Question 7: Freud described religion in 'The Future of an Illusion' as:
- A healthy sublimation of the death drive
- A universal obsessional neurosis rooted in helplessness and wish-fulfillment (Correct answer)
- A projection of the collective unconscious archetypes
- A socially sanctioned form of primary narcissism
Correct answer: A universal obsessional neurosis rooted in helplessness and wish-fulfillment
Freud compared religion to obsessional neurosis and saw it as an illusion driven by infantile helplessness and longing for a protective father.
Psychoanalysis In Culture and Society 2
In 'Totem and Taboo,' Freud argues that the prohibition against killing the totem animal parallels which psychological phenomenon?