Sophocles' Antigone and Freud's Civilization and its Discontents

This paper proposes the following theses:

1. The analytic categories of Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents allow us to identify the unconscious dimensions of the conflicts portrayed in Sophocles' Antigone;

2. The action of the Antigone allows us to perceive both the power and limitations of Freud's interpretation of the struggle between the “female” principle of Eros and the “male” principle of Ananke;

3. Both Civilization and Its Discontents and the Antigone provide a context for understanding the conflicts of civilized life.

In arguing the above propositions, I am proposing that the Antigone and Civilization and Its Discontents have an interactive relationship. That is, I argue that establishing a dialogue between Freud's and Sophocles' accounts of the conflicts of civilized life deepens our comprehension of the phenomenon of civilization and clarifies the meanings of each of the texts. What emerges from this interactive reading is a sense of the relatedness of these texts and a sensitivity to the ironic ways in which they confront each other.

Though this essay is critical of Freud in some of its conclusions, its interpretive strategy is ultimately indebted to him. As Thomas Mann notes, the general thrust of psychoanalysis has been to teach us that:

… the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconsciousness.1

It is my contention that Antigone relates to Freud's analysis of the dynamics of civilization as Oedipus Rex stands