pleasure principle

is a limit to enjoyment (in that it is a law which commands the subject to 'enjoy as little as possible'). The result of transgressing the pleasure principle is not more pleasure, but pain, since there is only a certain amount of pleasure that the subject can bear. Beyond this limit, pleasure becomes pain, and this 'painful pleasure'.

The pleasure principle functions as a limit to enjoyment... it is a law which commands the subject to 'enjoy as little as possible'. At the same time, the subject constantly attempts to transgress the prohibitions imposed on his enjoyment, to go 'beyond the pleasure principle'. However, the result of transgressing the pleasure principle is not more pleasure, but pain, since there is only a certain amount of pleasure that the subject can bear. Beyond this limit, pleasure becomes pain, and this 'painful pleasure' is what Lacan calls jouissance... 'jouissance is suffering' (S7, 184). (Evans 93)

is that which motivates all of our actions. If we find something pleasurable, we will naturally seek to repeat it.

Freud, following common sense, maintains that the pleasure principle motivates all of our actions. If we find something pleasurable, we will naturally seek to repeat it. But is this justified' It only seems justified if we follow Freud's definition of pleasure: ''flight from the stimulus' (FSP 296). An organism's tension, arising from need, must wait until this need is met to lapse into a sense of pleasure. For Freud, the organism develops strategies to deal with excess tension... the best strategy will eliminate it with a minimal effort. The pleas11re principle motivates this minimal effort.

pleasure principle, n.Definitions

pleasure principle