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Upbuilding and Awakening Essay In Herbert Marcuse’s (1955) book entitled Eros and Civilization, he provides an elaborate explanation to Sigmund Freud’s idea of unconscious and the principle behind it. Freud’s pleasure principle is the necessary factor that prevails in the realm of the unconscious. The unconscious operates mainly for the realization of pleasure and orients itself to the most profitable scenario in which it can achieve pleasurable reward that is free of pain. However, due to the environment to which any human is not capable of living without, the operation and orientation of the unconscious are impossible to realize. In this regard, Freud formulates another principle that â€Å"safeguards† and dictates moderation to the pleasure principle. Marcuse suggests that there can be found some evidences that there were varying forms of repression happened in the course of history in investigating the taboos that are locked in the unconscious. It can be viewed that Marcuse is pointing that humans are not totally free in the sense that he can literally get all the things he wishes to have or do that will definitely provide him the utmost form of gratification. In some of his passages, we could get an idea that this particular condition of humans in the civilization reveals that the culture that we have had is built by the antagonistic forces namely: the pleasure and reality principle. The unconscious is always being repressed, and safeguarded by reality. Soren Kierkegaard, on the other hand, has presented numerous accounts in relation to the unconscious. His idea of unconscious is rather incompatible with that of Marcuse and Freud. Accordingly, he states that â€Å"the unconscious that is relevant is the one which we wish not to notice, or have chosen to ignore, or perhaps made myself unable to comprehend (Conway, 2002 p. 73)†. Kierkegaard regards the unconscious as the spiritual being which must be directed towards God and not, in Freud and Marcuse’s sense, to the painless gratification. Another objection that Kierkegaard might raise against Freud’s notion of the unconscious is his argument that people have to balance the antagonistic actions of their physical and spiritual beings and not the two principles (pleasure and reality) that run against each other. The proper understanding of the unconscious makes it possible for a person to fully realize his self. This understanding is one of the necessary things that a person has to have in order to rule his own unconscious thereby making him conscious of his self and probably have a conscious relationship to God. The direction and orientation of the unconscious, contrary to that of Marcuse’s account, are toward God. Kierkegaard, in his writings, criticizes the middle class Christians because of his view that these people are not definitely having an excellent relationship with God. He considers this â€Å"flaw† of these middle class Christians as the ultimate source of problem in terms of their seemingly stagnant life. Consequently, he offers an accusation stating that these people are lacking of vision in life, that they are afraid of going out of their limitations, they are scared of change for the most gain and that they are merely conformists. It seems, at this point, that he has a high expectation of those who claim to be Christians. He so believes that if you are a child of God, and maintain an excellent relationship with Him, you must not be afraid of going beyond what is normally expect of you. Hence, Christians have to be a living example of how great God can do to His people. There must be no ordinary average religious people. People who claim to have religion must be have a genuine faith, and that, it should be manifested in all of their endeavor. Going back to Kierkegaard’s criticisms of the middle class Christians, we can see directly that he is taking it too seriously in his view of faith and its manifestation in the Christians lives. Moderation, apparently, is being relegated to the background. The idea that â€Å"Christians must have a superior living because his faith along with his actions would bring them the fortune† is like a conclusion based upon a hasty generalization and fallacious claims. If God truly blesses his children, and we regard that fortune and intelligence, for example, are considered blessings, it can also be surmised that there might be other blessings that He might give to his other children that are far more important than what Kierkegaard is arguing about. Social conformity should not be taken against anyone. Though his criticisms somehow reflect the scenario during his times, they did not provide a strong justification such that we would be able to accept them completely and have them against middle class Christians. The case that Kierkegaard has presented pertaining to those average religious people in his time can also be observed at this point in time, only that, these [criticisms] come in different situations and necessitate perspectives that may or may not contradict that of Kierkegaard’s. References: Books: Conway, D. and Gover, K. E. (Eds. ). (2002). Soren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers. Routledge, Kierkegaard, Soren. (1983). The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening. (H. V. Hong and E. H. Hong, Eds. ) Princeton University Press. Marcuse, Herbert. (1955). Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Into Freud. Boston, USA: Beacon Press. Internet Sources: Banks, Robert. (n. d. ). The Middle Class and Urban Mission. December 16, 2008, from http://www. urbana. org/_articles. cfm? RecordId=370