In the first section of Beyond The Pleasure Principle, Freud begins by addressing the concept of the pleasure principle itself, saying “…that the apparatus strives to keep the quantity of excitation within it as low as possible, or at least constant” (Sigmund Freud, 52). Meaning that humanity possess an instinctual drive toward experiencing pleasure and shielding itself from pain. Freud understands the existence of the pleasure principle, and states that it if it weren’t for various other human instincts, there would be dominance for pleasure. He states:
“If there were such a dominance, the vast majority of our mental processes would be accompanied b pleasure or lead to pleasure, but ordinary experience strongly contradicts this conclusion. Thus it must merely be the case that a strong tendency toward the pleasure principle exists in the mind, but that certain other forces or relations oppose the pleasure principle such that the result cannot always accord with the tendency toward pleasure.”
(Sigmund Freud, 53).
One can say that there is a general tendency towards the experience of pleasure that is often in conflict with other drives. An example of such a drive is the reality principle, which is a result from the ego’s impulses towards self-preservation and forces pleasure to be postponed or attained in different way.
In the second section of Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Sigmund Freud begins by giving examples of how traumatic neurosis could become present in a person’s life. Freud notes two important characteristics of ordinary traumatic neuroses: “First, the weightiest element in their causation seemed to be the factor of surprise, of fright; and secondly a wound or injury received…” (Sigmund Freud, 55). This neurosis i...
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...hts. The thoughts begin to build up and essentially overwhelm the person, which leads to the unintentional harm to the relationship. The person has conditioned himself or herself to feel this way when a certain action is performed, and since this reaction has been present for years, they will continue to do so.
In conclusion, Beyond the Pleasure Principle covers much ground on Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. The pleasure principle is the idea that humanity possesses an instinctual drive toward experiencing pleasure and shielding itself from pain. Traumatic neuroses are primarily caused by surprise or fright, and could keep reappearing in the dreams of the trauma patients as it places them back in the traumatic event that they experienced. Patients also recreate the experience that led to their current mental state through the term “repetition compulsion.”
Robert Nozick is a philosopher who seeks to disprove the utilitarian notion of hedonism through a thought experiment that he has entitles “The Experience Machine” (Nozick 646). I will first explain the concept of utilitarianism and hedonism, then the experience machine before I give a reply about the inclusion of a third category of pleasure which I have called “meta-pleasure”. Finally, I will show how technology may be disproving the entire experience machine thought experiment altogether.
Freud’s approach trauma is based in the treatment of hysteria. According to Ringel and Brandell, Freud and Breuer, considered an “external event” as responsible of determining hysterical symptoms. The common component between hysteria and trauma is the outcome of fright. Freud and Breuer emphasis the importance of cathartic experience as a way of decreasing or vanishing the effect. The “cathartic method” that was developed by Breuer, assisted to release of inhibited emotions. Freud believed that the libido, necessary to be relished for the symptoms to be improved (p. 43).
Freud, S., Strachey, J., Freud, A., Rothgeb, C., & Richards, A. (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (1st ed.). London: Hogarth Press.
Freud developed his theory from interactions with his neurotic patients and his own psychological experiences. He classifies an obsessional neurotic is classified as one who if “aware of impulses in [himself] which appear very strange,” is “led to actions, the performance of which, give him no enjoyment, but which it is quite impossible for [him] to omit” (Freud Abstracts 2). In Frankenstein’s ...
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
Sigmund Freud’s theories on the construction of the mind are simple, but fundamentally changed the field of psychology. He proposed, among other things, that the human mind is composed of three parts: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The preconscious consists of information, such as a telephone number, that is “accessible to consciousness without emotional resistance” (Schellenberg 21). In Freud’s estimation, the unconscious is the most important area of the mind. The information stored within it has “very strong resistances” to becoming conscious (Freud 32). Residing in the unconscious is the id, which “contains everything…that is present at birth… – above all, therefore, the instincts which originate from somatic organization” (14). From birth, all action is instinctual, from the id. The id recognizes and entertains no desires but its own and is impatient to have its needs met. This phase lasts until a part of the id changes “under the influence of the real external world” (14). This changed portion b...
For example, Carlisle (1993) understood, “Dissociation, fantasy, and compartmentalization enhance personality and behavioral differences” (p. 25). Moreover, in “Extreme cases of childhood trauma psychological issues can emerge” (p. 26), soliciting memories hidden in the subconscious later resting in the concepts of self and identity. Whereby, the relationship between dissociation, repression, and self could be due to libido suppression. Porter (2013) explained, Jung deduced, individual choices are subjective and suggestive residing at the “Core of the spiritual self” (p. 249). When there is a lack of libido, depression may arise, and the unconscious will attempt to direct the conscious energy in a rational direction. For example, if a person is hungry, sleepy, or desires sex, the libido energy force tries to fulfill those needs through objects. Each object holds distinct values for one’s subjective judgments and tendencies,...
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Pribor in the Austrian Empire (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his education in the medical field, Freud decided to mix the career fields of medicine and philosophy to become a psychologist (“Sigmund Freud” n. pag). During his research as a psychologist, he conceived the Structural Model Theory, which he discussed in his essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle. The theory states that the human psyche is divided into three main parts: the id, ego, and super-ego (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. pag). He concluded that the id was the desire for destruction, violence and sex; the ego was responsible for intellect and dealing with reality; and the super-ego was a person’s sense of right and wrong and moral standards (Hamilton, n. pag). Freud argued that a healthy individual will have developed the strongest ego to keep the id and super-ego in check (“Id, Ego, and Super-ego” n. p...
... making actual decisions, not selecting favourable experiences (which remain unchanged over the course of two years). In reality, relationships provide richness to pleasure, heightening it further than any fake pleasure could have been. There is always the challenge of trying, learning, failing and finally achieving. This achievement provides greater pleasure as well because one is able to distinguish between the lowest level (failure) and the overcoming of it at its highest level (achievement). Hedonists should see that it is important to be in tune with the entirety of reality, instead of just experiencing certain aspects of it.
Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was based on the opinion that human personality is made up of three components: the id, ego and superego. These three components are arranged along a hierarchy order with the id at the basal end, the ego in the middle and the super ego at the pinnacle. The id at the base, seeks instantaneous pleasure and fulfillment, driven by the pleasure principle. The id wants what it wants, when it wants it; regardless of whether or not it is possible to satisfy that particular want or need. The presence or logics of reality or societal behavior has no effect on the id. For example, if an infant is thirsty and sees a bottle of water he will take the bottle and drink even if it belonged to someone else and he did not
Freud’s conception of the mind is characterized by primarily by dynamism, seen in the distribution of psychic energy, the interplay between the different levels of consciousness, and the interaction between the various functions of the mind. The single function of the mind, which brings together these various aspects, is repression, the maintenance of what is and what isn’t appropriately retained in the conscious mind.
They suggest that Freud’s observational data consisted of a patient’s disorders and the absence of conscious contents which would appear during the psychoanalytic talking-cure. With this fundamental basis Freud formulated a theory which leads to the belief that the repressed unconscious thoughts in essence caused the disorders. (Talvitie & Tiitinen, 2006) Talvitie and Tiitinen modify the historical realm of psychoanalytic terms of repressed contents and the meta-psychology towards the present era using neurophysiological and empirical studies of consciousness, which focus more on the dynamic systems approach and one’s consciousness, memory, attention, and self. (Talvitie & Tiitinen,
When talking about pleasure there needs to be a distinction between the quality and the quantity. While having many different kinds of pleasures can be considered a good thing, one is more likely to favor quality over quantity. With this distinction in mind, one is more able to quantify their pleasures as higher or lesser pleasures by ascertaining the quality of them. This facilitates the ability to achieve the fundamental moral value that is happiness. In his book Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill offers a defining of utility as pleasure or the absence of pain in addition to the Utility Principle, where “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Mill 7). Through this principle, Mill emphasizes that it is not enough to show that happiness is an end in itself. Mill’s hedonistic view is one in support of the claim that every human action is motivated by or ought to be motivated by the pursuit of pleasure.
Deep in the minds of human beings lies a vast ocean of emotions and experiences. The human mind is often misconstrued and simplified by those who possess one, but delving deeper into the mind and it’s processes you see a whole other world that is veiled beneath the surface. One of the most famous examples of the human mind is the image of an iceberg, what is on the surface is so minimal compared to the immense body that lies underneath. Sigmund Freud was the father of psychoanalysis and believed in the idea of the unconscious and subconscious that help power who we are. Through psychoanalysis Freud began to reclaim the self as an individual and stressed the importance of the external world and it’s direct role with the internal realm of an individual. Although it was originally found to be a sort of therapy for those with mental illnesses, it has an interesting and analytical and philosophical view of the self, and through this spawned new beliefs in philosophy. Through the establishment of the id, superego, and ego, and the past’s affect on the shaping the present state of the self, psychoanalysis reclaims the self for an individual and is successful in doing so.
...portant bases of pleasure. Such as pleasures of reading; ‘Reading may be a compulsion for a school going child, pastime for a retired person, but a pleasure for many. You can discover simile on the face of novel- reader, a gleam in the eyes of the reader of a poem and furrow of seriousness on the forehead of a person reading a newspaper report. Reading disturbs mind and heart. Waves of thinking and emotion are generated by reading. So the pleasure is immediate and it continues to linger in the mind.’ Our emotions controls everything and finding pleasure is all about emotions. Books take us to new journeys and make us smile. “Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” Harold Bloom. We can found love, friendship, adventure, courage all of the things that make us smile and make us excited. Those are the greatest pleasures in our worlds.