Pleasure principle

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The pleasure principle is a term within the classical psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud . He referred to the pursuit of it for instant gratification of inherent basic instincts and needs. As this happens, instinctual tension is discharged and the associated feelings of unpleasure avoided or transformed into their opposite. The complementary psychological mechanism of action to the pleasure principle is the so-called reality principle .

Contrary to a widespread error, Freud no longer relates the pleasure principle in his later works exclusively to the sensation of sexual pleasure , but comes to the conclusion that it is decisive for every kind of needs or deficiencies that a living being has to compensate for, for itself and its species to obtain.

Developing the theory

The libido

Freud saw the origin of all forms of pleasure that are recognizable on the biological level in a universal, drive-energetic life force, which he called libido , comparable to “ life force ” or “ élan vital ” in the sense of Henri Bergson .

In itself monistic , this non-empirically measurable energy expresses itself dualistic from the moment of its realization , i.e. H. According to Freud, it takes on spiritual-physical or temporal-spatial forms and behaviors, i.e. at the same time the aspect of psyche and physis. Both are only harmoniously reunited in the "It". Above all, this is the case at the moment when the balance has been established between the basic needs that report themselves with displeasure and the (pleasurable) satisfaction of their inherent desire.

The hypothesis, advocated in Freud's earlier works, of a pleasure principle that only works in sexuality, was founded in patients who suffered from so-called hysteria and whose dreams - as became clear through their free associations - often referred to their unconscious genital needs.

Childlike pleasure

From observations of small children, Freud soon concluded that there was a desire for lust that had existed from birth. However, this appeared to him to be so varied and unspecific that he did not want to call it a forerunner of exclusively sexual pleasure . Instead, he coined the term “polymorphic perversions”, which seems misleading from today's point of view, to denote childish pleasure behavior - a measure that Freud took in order to be roughly understood by his contemporary colleagues, since at this time children physical pleasure was dictated by religion as science was consistently denied. Childhood was defined as "asexual", that is, an innocent angelic state in the sense of church teaching.

According to Freud, the so-called polymorphic perverse childlike impulses are expressed not only in the satisfaction of the sexual organs ( masturbation already in the cradle, 'doctor games'), but more generally in every form of pleasure gain through body contact (skin to skin in groups, alone rubbing against objects, sucking, sucking with and without food intake, excretion, nose picking, etc.). According to Freud's theory, even the beginnings of hostility towards pleasure through restrictive moral upbringing lead to a limitation of natural drives and to neuroses .

The pleasure principle

Freud discovered the pleasure principle through dream analysis , from the results of which he gained the main part of his knowledge. Striving for pleasure and reason-guided avoidance of displeasure embody the two most elementary aspects of the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle works both in the need for food intake for the immediate preservation of life and in the satisfaction of sexual pleasure for species-preserving increase, furthermore in the spiritual striving for pleasure (thirst for knowledge), in the social and in other natural needs.

An unsatisfied basic need is pure desire . It creates inherently energetic tensions that can be felt either on a more physical or on a more spiritual level; depending on what need it was that remained unsatisfied. Possible are e.g. B. Tensions of loneliness as a result of social frustration, or insecurity as a result of an issue that has not been (mentally) resolved; likewise "hunger" as perhaps the purest form of desire that can always be reduced to instinctual energy. Each of the drives demands satisfaction in its own way (gain of pleasure up to the satisfaction of the need).

It is proceeded according to the principle of drive economy, i. H. the energy first invests something of itself in order to generate feelings of discomfort such as B. To induce hunger. Only their inner perception causes the organism - i. H. his "I" - to look for the objects suitable to satisfy them, whereby pleasure is gained as an added value of the investment.

The I / Consciousness has the task of looking for clarity within itself and for external sources of life: In this way, people are able to relieve the social tensions that arose from a previous frustration, or to take care of food in a mutually fruitful exchange in which the pleasure arises through their incorporation.

See also

literature

  • Sigmund Freud: Beyond the pleasure principle . Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Leipzig, Vienna and Zurich 1920 (first printing), 2nd revised edition 1921, 3rd revised. Edition 1923
  • Marie-Ann Lenner: Benjamin Barber: Psychological dimensions of the democratic theory . GRIN Verlag, Norderstedt 2011, p. 3 ff. ( Online )

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Around 1900 all kinds of pleasure that are not directly and exclusively in the service of reproduction - such as the "homoerotic" exchange of pleasure - were called a 'perverse' degeneration. For example, it was considered improper obscenity to call the appetite for a certain food "lust for ..". Freud never understood the term 'perversions' literally (Latin: perversum = twisted, unnatural, abnormal. Greek: poly- = much and morphos = shape).