showed us what evil is, not, as we thought,
deeds that must be punished, but our lack of faith,
our dishonest mood of denial,
the concupiscence of the oppressor. —Auden “In Memory of Sigmund Freud"
A philosopher might think that To be free is often to be lonely, is the crucial line in Auden's elegy to Freud. For it seems to imply (with shades of Rousseau) that within society no freedom is possible. Of course, if other people are insufferable, one might well prefer such freedom, but on the whole we make honorable compromises with ourselves and the infirmities of others, and call it, justice (and, thus, generate that dishonest mood of denial.)
This is meaningless chatter.
Yet, Auden is quite precise and clear about the social contributions of Freud's thought (e.g. the proud can still be proud but find it a little harder.) And (chanelling Freud) he calls us back to the many long-forgotten objects and when the accusations had begun not to settle scores or find scapegoats, but to retell our story (albeit better), so we can make our world precious again.
As an aside, in professional philosophy the accusations tend to begin with Carnap and Heidegger; or with Bradley and Russell; and sometimes Stebbing and Black.
Of course, an optimistic logic-chopper may well think that Auden allows that sometimes freedom does not entail loneliness. But for that dream-world, we philosophers need the sense of wonder and a poetry lesson.
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