_Civilization and Its Discontents_ is widely considered Freud's most important and most brilliant work. In it Freud examines why today's society causes suffering on such a vast scale and whether the human drives for pleasure and aggression can ever be reconciled. This lively new translation with helpful explanatory notes captures Freud's engaging tone for a twenty-first-century audience and includes essays by two of Freud's most insightful and renowned interpreters, historian Carl E. Schorske and philosopher Richard Rorty.