Freud on Vulnerability and Civilisation

The aim of this paper is to offer a philosophical analysis of the concept of risk, with the primary goal of critiquing the incessant striving for security as being just as dangerous as risk itself. Drawing upon Freud’s writings on anxiety and some of his most renowned social works, I try to show that aspiring to the ideal of a situation purified of risk is not in fact a solution, but rather a repression of the problem, as it constitutes the avoidance of a genuine confrontation with it. Furthermore, I refer to Christopher Bollas’ book on Meaning and Melancholia to demonstrate that a democratic approach to risk entails the need to resist the temptation to flee from the complexities of reality. Instead, it involves acknowledging, with a mature adult awareness, that our greatest vulnerability as human beings is in fact rooted in our aggressiveness.