When Freud wrote his classic Civilization and its Discontents, hewas concerned with repression. Modern civilization depends upon theconstraint of impulse, the limiting of self expression.
Today, in the time of modernity, Bauman argues, Freud's analysis nolonger holds good, if it ever did. The regulation of desire turnsfrom an irritating necessity into an assault against individualfreedom. In the postmodern era, the liberty of the individual...