55: What is the Pleasure Principle? feat. Rebecca Ariel Porte
Jun 1, 2024
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Scholar and literary critic Rebecca Ariel Porte joins Abby and Patrick to delve into Freud's pleasure principle. They discuss the complexities of pleasure, its relation to pain and the reality principle, and its role in mental development. The conversation explores Freud's theories in depth, from pleasure and neurosis to the transition to the reality principle. Plus, a Freudian analysis of a sequence in Milton's Paradise Lost!
Freud's pleasure principle evolves into the reality principle as individuals transition from seeking basic pleasure to understanding sensory qualities.
Hallucinatory satisfaction in infancy shapes the foundation for navigating the external world through sensory data and conscious awareness.
Life involves a constant interplay between pleasure-seeking and reality acceptance, guiding behavior with an understanding of cause and effect.
Freud's narrative construction of developmental theories blends psychoanalysis and mythology to explain the psyche's evolution over time.
Deep dives
Transition from Pleasure to Reality Principle
The podcast episode discusses the transition from the pleasure principle to the reality principle in human development. Initially, individuals seek pleasure and avoid unpleasure through basic binary responses. However, as external reality gains significance, attention towards sensory qualities emerges, setting the stage for the reality principle. The reality principle introduces the understanding of sensory data, exceeding pleasure and unpleasure. It signifies a shift towards comprehending external reality and the need to make real alterations based on sensory input.
Hallucinatory Satisfaction and Developmental Narratives
The concept of hallucinatory satisfaction is explored within the context of infant development. Initially, individuals experience non-gratification leading to the relinquishment of hallucinatory satisfaction and the adoption of reality conception. As attention is directed towards external stimuli, a shift occurs from only seeking pleasure to comprehending sensory qualities. These early experiences form the foundation for navigating the external world through sensory data and conscious awareness.
Interplay Between Pleasure and Reality Throughout Life
The podcast delves into how the interplay between the pleasure and reality principles persists throughout life. Individuals continuously oscillate between seeking pleasure and accepting reality, leading to dynamic responses to internal and external stimuli. The reality principle prompts attention towards the external world and sensory inputs, guiding behavior with a conscious understanding of cause and effect. This ongoing interplay shapes responses to disappointment and the need for reality-based actions.
Narrative Character and Theory Construction
Freud's narrative character of constructing developmental theories is highlighted, depicting a mythic origin of the psyche. Using psychoanalytic resources, Freud crafts a developmental narrative that encapsulates the psyche's friction with its environment. The transition from reactive binary responses to motivated, coherent actions is narrated like a myth, blending psychoanalytic and narrative elements to explain the psyche's evolution over time.
The Intersection of Reality and Fantasy in Art and Education
Art and education play pivotal roles in reconciling the pleasure and reality principles. Education incites the conquest of the pleasure principle, encouraging individuals towards reality principle. Art, on the other hand, allows individuals to mold fantasies into new truths valued by many as reflections of reality. The artist, originating from a world of fantasy and turning away from reality, finds a path back by expressing special gifts to create art that bridges the pleasure and reality principles.
The Influence of Sexual Instincts and Ego Instincts
Freud delves into the detachment of sexual instincts from ego instincts, with sexual instincts initially behaving autoerotically. He explores how the delay in sexual development due to autoerotism and latency impacts the psychical development in individuals, keeping the sexual instinct under the dominance of the pleasure principle for an extended period. This discussion sheds light on the complexity of human instincts and their influence on psychical growth.
The Integration of Seduction and Education through Milton's Paradise Lost
Milton's Paradise Lost epitomizes the dynamics of seduction and education in the context of the pleasure and reality principles. Through Eve's transition from innocence to experience, Milton portrays the tragic yet enlightening journey of self-discovery. The depiction of seduction as a means of education underscores the eternal struggle between personal desires and external realities, offering insight into the complexities of human cognition and behavior.
Abby and Patrick welcome scholar and literary critic Rebecca Ariel Porte of Dilettante Army and the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research to talk about the key Freudian concept of the pleasure principle. Starting with Freud’s 1911 essay, “Formulations Regarding Two Principles of Mental Functioning,” Rebecca, Abby, and Patrick probe the complicated question of what, exactly “pleasure” (German: Lust) means for Freud. At the end of the day, is “pleasure” simply the avoidance of pain, relative movement along a stimulus gradient, an object towards which we turn reflexively like sunflowers towards the sun, or something else? How does Freud’s notion of pleasure relate, on the one hand, to its apparent opposite, AKA “unpleasure” (German: Unlust), and to the “reality principle” on the other? What is the status and function of the different ways we imagine pleasure and find pleasure in imagining, from daydreams to fantasies to “hallucinatory satisfactions” in general? Plus: what Freud’s theories of pleasure miss and other analytic thinkers don’t (with reference to Heinz Kohut and Melanie Klein); the relationship between ego instincts and sexual instincts; flights into illness and the meanings of neurosis; and a reading of an incredibly Freudian sequence in Milton’s Paradise Lost!
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