Seeking Pleasure and Agression Is Part of Human Instinct
Name: Mohamed Fakhry A.Wahab
Based on Freud concepts of pleasure and aggression, discuses Hay Ibn
Yaqzan and The Island of Animals
It is said to be that seeking pleasure and aggression are a part of our human Instinct. We seek pleasure to shorten the time of our unhappiness. We live in a constant struggle to be always happy, and we use all the ways that take us to happiness. Aggression, on the otherhand, is a part of our human nature, which can be hidden deep down in our subconcousnes and explodes in certain situations, or it can be on the surface of our behavior and inconstant use. Sources of happiness may differ from one person to another, but the one source of our human gratification that we all agree upon, is the happiness derived from sexual pleasure. Our souls strive for sexual pleasure to be elevated from one degree of human happiness to another. Freud said that “what we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the ... satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon.” (25). At the sametime, we explore those human instincts in the presence of civilization which set some rules and regulation that are surpassingly acting as guidelines for the survival of humanity. Hay Ibn Yaqzan and The Island of animals, are two different human experiences that discover our two core human instincts, pleasure and aggression.
In Hay, we will find that his journey with his own instincts is different from our own human instincts, but it is the same when it comes to the roll of civilization with dealing with them. On the otherhand, The Island of Animals tends to dig in our human aggression, and shows how humanity uses civilization as a curtain to hide behind it.
Freud concept of pleasure and happiness is related to Hay in only one way. It is not in the kind of happiness itself , whether if is sexual or spiritual, but it is similar in the procedure and the definitions of happiness or pleasure. In other words, pleasure to Freud is basically in sexual terms, “
Sexual gratification is the prototype of all forms of individual happiness...”.
On the otherhand, Hay Ibn Yaqzan's happiness or his pleasure is found in totally different kind of human instinct, which is the substitute gratification for sexual pleasure, because religion and science are included in Freud's lists for intellectual replacements for the lost sexual happiness.
Everyone wants to be “happy.” Everyone endeavors to fulfill their desires for their own pleasure. What makes this ironic is, the fact that most don‘t know what the actual definition of happiness is. “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” presents an argument, which states that not everyone will be happy. Darrin McMahon, the article’s author, explores the ways our “relentless pursuit of personal pleasure”(McMahon P.11;S.3) can lead to empty aspirations and impractical expectations, making us sad, and not happy. Rather than working to find the happiness of others, we should all focus on finding what makes ourselves happy. It is easier to find happiness in the little things
The psychoanalytic theory says that our childhood experiences and unconscious desires influence behavior (Sigelman & Rider, 2009; pg.36). Our personalities have memories, beliefs, urges, drives, and instincts that we are not always aware of, and make up the unconscious. The major driving force behind Freud’s instinctual theory is the concept of Libido. Libido is a natural energy source that fuels the mechanisms of the mind. When this libidinal energy is stuck or fixated at various stages of psychosexual development, conflicts can occur that have lifelong effects.
In psychology there is much debate about the meaning of the term ‘aggression,’ as many different people have different views on how to define it, one definition comes from berkowitz 1993 and states aggression is ‘behaviour that is intended to injure someone physically or psychologically.’ Many explanations have been proposed for aggression and there is a split between the highly reductionist biological approach and the less reductionist social psychological approaches. Each of these explanations have proven extremely useful in answering certain questions surrounding aggression and helping us to gain more of an understanding of aggressive behaviour, however their limitations must also be acknowledged.
Everyone chases after happiness. Everyone’s goal of life is being happy. Each of them chooses a variety of measures, such as earning money, to be happy. However, there are many people that are not happy. People always endeavor after happiness, but they never reach it. For what reason are they not able to fulfill their standards of happiness? What effort should they put into their lives to meet them? This essay will explain why people fail to be happy and what people are supposed to do in order to gain happiness.
Happiness is intended pleasure or absence of pain.(513) Both this definition and the following definition for unhappiness suffer from really understanding what pleasure and pain are, the use of competent judges and those principles below aid in that.(513)
Sell, Hone, and Pound (2012) examined the importance of physical strength in shaping male psychology. Aggression and violence are fairly effective ways of winning conflict in the competition for resources between males, but can impose large costs on the loser of the conflict (Sell et al., 2012). The consequences of conflict would have put high pressure for the male brain to evolve ways of interpreting the odds of success, to determine when to avoid conflict or engage in aggressive and violent actions (Sell et al., 2012). The authors outline evolved mechanisms for aggression and their effect on the decisions of modern-day human males.
Before we look into specifics, we’ll examine the history and development of “happiness” as a philosophy. Of course, the emotion of happiness has always existed, but it began to be seriously contemplated around 2,500 years ago by philosophers like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. Shortly after Buddha taught his followers his Noble Eight Fold Path (which we will talk about later), Aristotle was teaching that happiness is “dependent on the individual” (Aristotle).
For myself, I believe that true happiness is an illusion. I believe in the desire-driven
and pain, desire, passion, sex, and aggression. It is the source of primal instincts. "The
An aggressive act is one which causes either injury or anxiety to others or destruction of
Traditional psychoanalytical theory states that all human beings are born with instinctual drives that are constantly active even though a person is usually not conscious of thus being driven. Two drives--one for sexual pleasure, called libido, the other called aggression--motivate and propel most behavior. In the infant, the libido first manifests itself by making sucking an activity with pleasurable sensations in the mouth. Later similar pleasures are experienced in
In fact, animal behaviorist John Paul Scott wrote that “all of our present data indicate that fighting behavior among higher mammals, including man, originates in external stimulation and that there is no evidence of spontaneous internal stimulation”. One example of external stimulation is the drive to fulfill biological needs. Notably, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a person cannot move on to love, esteem, or self-actualization needs until fulfilling their most basic needs- namely, physiological and safety. Acquiring biological necessities may lead some to cruelty, but these barbaric acts have an end goal in mind; survival. Therefore, this aggression is not intrinsic. Precarious situations draw out the primitive side of humanity; human instinct requires a fight for survival, but instinct does not instruct one to hurt or maim others for no reason at all. In conclusion, humans are not naturally inclined towards
Under the context of aggression, there are many causes that work together to arouse people’s aggressiveness. Biological influence through neural and chemical, combine with the situation and the target people is facing. Often times a target for aggression matters, for example, men’s aggression is often towards another man (Graham & Wells, 2001a). As for women, in a research, it reveals that they are more likely to have physical aggression towards their partner (Archer, 2000). Both of these research confirmed that gender difference affects the selection of targets. Also, the situation is another factor for aggression, in the research it declares
As a child growing up, parents would teach their kids that realizing certain milestones in life, such as, getting A’s in school, getting accepted into an Ivy League college, having a respected career, having a trusted income, living in a two story home, marrying the love of your life, having well-rounded kids, pretty much living the American dream with the perfect family, will make us happy. The honest truth is that even obtaining all of these things listed above has nothing to do with happiness. The Oxford English Dictionary defined the word happiness as “the quality or condition of being happy;” it sounds fairly easy to define, but happiness isn’t just “being happy”. If the word was that easily interpreted, than many people wouldn’t misuse it in different contexts or scenarios. Happiness is different from happy moments. Even though the word happiness is debatable, at the end of the day, it is what everyone is trying to attain.
Happiness is an inner state of well-being and fulfilment, and therefore it has to come from inside. Every individual has his or her own emotions and way of thinking and as a result of this no one can really say what happiness is and what happiness is not. However, universally, happiness is a by-product of a healthy attitude and viewpoint. Happiness exists in everyone whether they choose to acknowledge and believe it or not. It is not rare nor is it something only the elite have: everyone has it but not everyone recognizes it. Contentment is finding a light at the end of every dark tunnel and in order to experience this we must ignore the pessimism surrounding us and remind ourselves that happiness is not a materialistic object but a choice and frame of mind.