Civilization and Its Discontents argues that society was conceived in order to minimize the displeasure caused by living with other people, but has resulted in people unwittingly becoming neurotic. In order for a society to function it must impose laws that repress the individual's destructive death-drive, thanatos, causing natural aggression to be forced back on the ego in the form of guilt. Writing after World War I, Freud directs his analysis towards humanity as a whole, wondering how scientific advancement and this repression will play out culturally and politically.
The desire to succeed interferes with being happy A person can get lost in the process of solving a problem so intently that they forget those around them to eat and even where they are In Mary Shelleys horrific Frankenstein an example is the character of Victor whose unnatural pursuit of knowledge of discovering how to create the perfect being is so extreme that he loses himself in his creation Frankenstein follows the story of the brilliant Victor and his many achievements which go astray aft