Brings Freud out nicely

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2005)

If you haven't read Civilization and Its Discontents, or if you read it and didn't feel you got it, try it again. It's about the tension between instinct and culture. And Konrad Lorenz's On Aggression, mostly derivative of Freud's little book, does some useful updating.
Dogs are aggressive, ready to fight at the slightest sense of threat. Pet dogs do a pretty good job of subsuming their aggressions. But they have one hell of a pack instinct to help them out. With presumably equally strong aggressive instincts but no pack instinct to speak of, what do humans do with their aggressions in order to stay out of jail and in social good graces?