On happiness II

“Τhe programme for attaining happiness, imposed on us by the pleasure principle, cannot be fully realized, but we must not- indeed cannot- abandon our efforts to bring its realization somehow closer. To reach this goal we may take very different routes and give priority to one or the other of two aims: the positive aim of gaining pleasure or the negative one of avoiding its opposite. On neither route can we attain all we desire. Happiness, in the reduced sense in which it is acknowledged to be possible, is a problem concerning the economy of the individual libido. There is no advice that would be beneficial to all;everyone must discover for himself how he can achieve salvation. The most varied factors will come into play and direct his choice. It is a question of how much real satisfaction he can expect from the external world, how far he is led to make himself independent of it, and finally, how much strength he feels he has to change it in accordance with his wishes. Αpart from the external conditions, what will be decisive here is the individual’s mental constitution…”

Freud S., Civilization and Its Discontents, Penguin, London, 2004, p.27-28.