The author takes issue with Freud's understanding of civilization, which, both functionalist and individualist, takes too narrow a perspective. Freud's “methodological Hobbesianism” operates on the assumption of drives that are both lower

than and prior to the act of establishing civilization. Schmid Noerr contends, however, that since these drives can only be described in cultural contexts, the conclusion must be that civilization is not only a normative standard placed over and against such drives, but also a form of social organization of semiotic systems extending to the regulation of the emotional signification incorporated in the drives themselves.