The Book of Freud

In an attempt to quiet the carnal id and "play nice" in new found reality, the human develops the ego, and it is the ego, then, that drives humans to labor. Freud theorizes that this taking up of labor (to excess), and the repression of the id's pleasure principle, is what leads to neurosis, or worse, psychosis. If Freud is right--if excessive labor and repression of the id do lead to these conditions--then the id must be treated more gently, its desires coddled.

But surely we cannot cast aside work--hard work, at that. Excessive labor, to me, seems much more profitable than bending to "the insatiable demands of the id" (Eagleton 140). I keep thinking of Ecclesiastes, and Qoheleth's insistence that "there is nothing better for a man than that a man should rejoice in his work" (Ecclesiastes 3:22). Over and over again in his text, he proclaims the value of labor, proponing that work is, in fact, that which will bring true satisfaction.

In reconsidering Ecclesiastes, however, something becomes clear. In addition to work, Qoheleth also names eating, drinking, and "one's wife" as sources of enjoyment, all three of which seem to hearken back to the id and its preoccupation with pleasure.

Herein, it seems that the Bible and Freud aren't so far away from each other; both Scripture and Doctor are, in the end, prescribing something of a balance between id and ego, pleasure and reality.