The 'trade-of' between values of freedom and security being arguably a permanent feature of civilization, Unsicherheit (uncertainty, insecurity, un-safety) against which, as Freud believed, civilization was in the state of permanent war, has turned towards the end of the last century into the major and most gruesome worry that tends to overshadow the anxiety caused by insufficiency of freedom. Civilization stands accused for the unbearably large volume of Sicherheit that had to be sacrificed to pay for the liberties that civilization allowed them to enjoy. The value-pendulum started moving the other way; it still moves that way, and on a fast growing speed. The causes of such shift can be traced to the passage from the 'solid' to the 'liquid' phase of modernity, and from society of producers and soldiers to the society of consumers.
Target article
Zygmunt Bauman: Freudian civilisation revisited. Or whatever happened to the reality principle?
Commentaries
Peter Beilharz: Therapy with Bauman.
Harry R. Brickman: Is there a future to Freud's illusions about civilization?
Keith Tester: Pleasure, Reality, the Novel and Pathology.
Kathrine Zeuthen & Simo Køppe: What is reality and what is pleasure?
Jack Zipes: Commentary.