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There is a particular statement attributed to Freud (although it cannot be precisely quoted) – that what one can expect from a complete analysis could be a certain victory over the impediment to love and work, in both men and women. In his major text Civilization and its discontents (Freud, 1930), he states that the two pillars that sustain civilization are Eros (love) and Ananke (necessity). These are his words:
After primal man had discovered that it lays in his own hands, literally, to improve his lot on earth by working, it cannot have been a matter of indifference to him whether another man worked with or against him. The other man acquired the value for him as a fellow-worker, with whom it was useful to live together. Even earlier, in this ape-like prehistory, man had adopted the habit of forming the families, and the members of his family were probably his first helpers. One may suppose that the founding of families was connected with the fact that a moment came when the need for genital satisfaction no longer made his appearance like a guest who drops in suddenly, and, after his departure is heard of no more for a long time, but instead took its quarters as a permanent lodger. (Freud, 1930, p 99)
Thus, community life has a dual foundation: the power of love, which makes man reluctant to deprive himself of his sexual object, and woman to deprive herself of her son; and the compulsion to work, created by the need to tame nature. Eros and Ananke are, therefore, essential to civilization. Work comprises the anthropological essence of being human, makes up part of culture, and directly affects people's mental health. Therefore, the analyst must be aware of what is happening in culture, because changes that take place in the world of work will directly impact on his patients.
The concept of work is far more comprehensive than the one defined by economics. In addition to referring to the material transformations caused by humans’ activity aimed at adapting nature to t