Sigmund Freud and his Interpretation of the Concept of Happiness

Everyone wants a good life, but the question to be asking is how to get the good life. Sigmund Freud and Andrew Carnegie both believed that happiness, or a good life, is intentionally hunted. However, Lao Tzu does not think that is the case. Freud, Carnegie, and Lao Tzu’s perspectives on achieving the good life will be compared and differentiated with on another. Many people want the secret in having happiness and a life that is worth living, but is it something that we need to be seeking or is it something that we do not need to search for?

Freud believe that happiness does not come one source. “Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone” (Freud, 17). The pleasure principle has a great impact on having a good life filled with happiness. “This principle dominates the operation of the mental apparatus from the start” (Freud, 25). We are seeking happiness in multiple areas in our lives (success in work, sexual pleasure, etc.) and we are always trying to find happiness.

Sigmund Freud believes that man within civilization cannot be truly happy. In reality, man also cannot actually live without it as well. Civilization sacrifices man’s own faith and happiness for its own development, and then man loses the opportunity of spontaneous happiness. Freud believes that civilization gives security to man; he is physically protected and his natural instincts are under control. Humans are not born with moral sense because society builds it for us. Civilization deals with aggression and the ego-instinct by having morals. This then causes tension between the harsh superego and ego, which results in guilt, therefore civilization takes over the desire for aggression by weakening it (Freud, 83). By retaining his natural aggression, which prevents him from acting violently, also makes man happy. Or at least it gives him happiness so far as to be free from pain, but that is not true, lasting happiness.

Carnegie thought that wealth was a virtue. He mentions in Wealth that “…the good old days were not so good…[and] The inherent disharmony of inequality can be offset by philanthropy and the fruits of modern industrialized society which lifts up the rich and poor alike, despite the wealth gap.” There is a large separation between the rich and poor, which has caused a great divide to those who work hard and those who are lazy. Carnegie believes that happiness is achieved when you work hard to become successful. This means to become wealthy because you cannot have as much happiness if you are poor. Once given the success that you have set as a goal, you will then be able to give back to the poor. This will allow others to be given a n opportunity to also work hard and become successful themselves. Carnegie once said, “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.”

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