« In the current system, those who are capable of love are necessarily exceptions: love is by necessity a marginal phenomenon in contemporary Western society. »

« Modern capitalism needs men who cooperate together and in large numbers, who want to consume more and more, and whose tastes are standardized, easily modelable and predictable. Men who, while feeling free and autonomous, of not being subject to any authority, rule or internal constraint, nevertheless agree to be commandd, to carry out what is expected of them, to insert themselves without friction into the social machine. Men who can be led without violence, driving without leaders, moving without purpose, if not that of holding one's place, of being on the move, of functioning, of continuing to advance. Modern man has lost contact with himself, with others and with nature. Transformed into a commodity, it experiences its vital forces as an investment from which it must make the most of the possible profit in relation to market conditions. Human relationships are essentially relationships between insane automatons, each ensuring its safety by striving to stay close to the crowd and not distinguish itself in thought, feeling or action. Therefore, everyone remains absolutely alone, plagued by insecurity, anguish and guilt, all feelings inescapable when one fails to overcome human loneliness. To help people to remain consciously oblivious to this loneliness, our civilization offers many palliatives: first, the strict routine of mechanical work, bureaucratized, which drowns in unconsciousness the most fundamental human desires, the nostalgic desire for transcendence and unity. To the extent that the routine of work does not succeed on its own, man overcomes his unconscious despair by the routine of amusement, by the passive consumption of sounds and performances offered by the leisure industry; to which is added the satisfaction of buying always new things and soon exchanging them for others. The modern man is not far from the portrait that Huxley drew in his Brave New World: well-fed, well-dressed, sexually satisfied, but devoid of self, with no contact with others other than superficial. (pp. 105-106) »

« Freud could conceive his discoveries only within the framework of the concepts and terminology of his time. Having never been able to free himself from the materialism of his masters, he had to find a way to disguise human passions by presenting them as the products of an instinct. »