Marcuse's Inheritance and Development of Freud's View of Civilization
In Freud's view,the"pleasure principle"with the core of seeking maximum satisfaction of instinct is the first choice for human beings to obtain happiness.More satisfaction means more happiness,so the"pleasure principle"requires a kind of uncon-strained satisfaction.But this kind of satisfaction can only exist in the pre-civilized state of nature,and the survival of civilization re-quires that it must transform into the"reality principle."Through the"triple repression"of instinct,civilization replaces unconstrained satisfaction with limited satisfaction,which marks the establishment of human civilization.On this basis,Marcuse proposed the concept of"operating principle".As a transformation of the reality principle in capitalist society,the operating principle replaces"basic repres-sion"with"additional repression"in exchange for additional satisfaction for the privileged class.It is the source of alienation in capi-talist civilization.