Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the theories of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, and explores the potential of collective memory to be a source of disobedience and revolt and point the way to an alternative future. Its title alludes to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). The 1966 edition has an added "political preface".
Cover of the first edition
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Marcuse reinterprets Freud's theories about the instincts.
Herbert Marcuse was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and then at Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research – what later became known as the Frankfurt School. In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism, and popular culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control.
Marcuse in 1955
Herbert Marcuse giving a lecture in Berlin, 1967.
Herbert Marcuse and his first wife, Sophie Marcuse, in their New York apartment
Grave in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery, Berlin, where Marcuse's ashes were buried in 2003