Sigmund Freud argues that it is simply inherent in mankind's nature to be violent and nasty. He believes that this nature is the only explanation to man's aggressive and violent acts throughout the years. Since he believed that that our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, he in turn believed that humans would be much more content if they abandoned civilized life and returned to primitive existence. There are certain aspects of a society that will impede individuals from doing whatever they please. Society has a way of regulating and containing our individual eagerness. He believes it is much easier for humans to be unhappy than happy. He is clearly pessimistic about the vision of achieving a Utopian society, one in which everyone is happy. Although he is pessimistic about this concept, he does believe that there are things man can do within a society to make it a better place to live. There is always sacrifice involved when trying to progress and it is human nature to dislike sacrifice. .
Freud compares the human mind to that of the archaeological layers of Rome. By this he means that there are still remains to build more history upon. An exception being that in the human psyche nothing is destroyed it is merely preserved somewhere in the brain. He believed that the mind has three main parts. Part one is the ID, the ID can be thought of as rules of society's morality. Part two is the EGO, the EGO can be thought of as conscious thoughts, ideas, images, and also dreams. The EGO can also symbolize a persona or a mask. The third part is the SUPEREGO, the SUPEREGO can be thought of as Unacceptable desires, thoughts that we have, but they are bad so our minds deny them. We are not always alert of our unconscious ideas even though they impact our behavior in someway or another.
Freud defines "civilization- as, "the whole sum of the achievements and the regulations which distinguish our lives from those of our animal ancestors and which serve two purposes "namely to protect men against nature and to adjust their mutual relations.