Heuristics
By the time Freud was reaching 1910, certain patterns were emerging from his patients, and with competing contributions from his followers, especially Carl Jung, there was some pressure to provide a heuristic, or a method of investigation to solve these psychological problems. Freud’s contribution found that “every neurosis has an effect…of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from reality. The neurotic turns away from reality because he finds either the whole or parts of it unbearable. The most extreme type of this turning away from reality is exhibited in certain cases of hallucinatory psychosis where the patient attempts to deny the event that has triggered his insanity. Actually, though, every neurotic does the same thing with some fragment of reality. Thus we are presented with the task of studying the development of the relationship of neurotics – and mankind in general – to reality, and so of assimilating the psychological significance of the real outside world into the framework of our theories.”
The Pleasure Principle
Depending on the translation, Freud’s theory focuses on how “lust” or “unlust” manifests in our day to day thinking processes. “These processes strive to gain pleasure; our psychic activity draws back from any action that might arouse unpleasure (repression). Our dreams at night, our tendency when awake to recoil from painful impressions, these are vestiges of the rule of this principle and evidence of its power.”
At the time Freud was worried about being accused of plagiarism, as Carl Jung was also developing two modes of thinking, associative, and directed thinking in his Symbols of Transformation. As usual, when you think something is new in psychology, philosophy had something to say about it much earlier.
“Let it be assumed by us that pleasure is a certain movement of the soul, a sudden and perceptible settling down into its natural state, and pain the opposite. If such is the nature of pleasure, it is evident that which produces the disposition we have just mentioned is pleasant, and that which destroys it or produces the contrary settling down is painful. Necessarily, therefore, it must be generally pleasant to enter into a normal state.” ~ Rhetoric – Aristotle – Book I, Chapter 11. (350 BC).
As rational as this principle is, there is a problem with it: Humanity must face many situations that call for some pain first to gain a greater pleasure later. In the ancient world, if we wanted to achieve the most basic goal, to eat enough to survive, we had to hunt first, or cultivate plants, before we could gratify ourselves.
The Reality Principle
As our mind searches for pleasure, and thinks of ideas of pleasure, there comes inevitably a conflict with reality, and an attempt to assimilate it. Freud says that, “whatever was thought of (wished for) was simply hallucinated, as still happens every night with our dream thoughts. It was due only to the failure of the anticipated satisfaction, the disillusionment as it were, that this attempt at satisfaction by means of hallucination was abandoned. Instead, the psychic apparatus had to resolve to form an idea of the real circumstances in the outside world and to endeavour actually to change them. With this, a new principle of psychic activity was initiated; now ideas were formed no longer of what was pleasant, but of what was real, even if this happened to be unpleasant.”
Consciousness, Attention, Memory, and Action
As a way to explain this behaviour Freud developed the topography of the mind further. “The increased significance of external reality heightened in turn the significance of the sense organs directed towards that outside world, and also of the consciousness attached to these, which now learnt how to discern sensory qualities in addition to the qualities of pleasure and unpleasure, previously its only concern. A specific function of attention was setup with the task of periodically scanning the outside world in order to assimilate its data in advance, should an urgent inner need arise. This activity seeks out sensory impressions rather than waiting for them to occur. Probably at the same time, a system of retention was set up with the task of storing the results of this periodic activity of consciousness, an element of what we call memory.”
Freud then explains how this ability could be used to assess the world. “In place of repression, which excluded certain of the emerging ideas – those deemed unpleasurable – from being invested with energy, there arose a process of impartial judgement, whose task it was to decide if a particular idea was true or false – that is, corresponded with reality or not – a decision reached via comparisons made with memory traces of reality.”
Once the judgement is made about the environment, Freud defines motivation by how the “motor discharge, which under the rule of the pleasure principle had served to relieve the psychic apparatus from increases in stimulation by means of innervations sent inside the body (physical gestures, expressions of emotion), was now given a new function, being deployed to make expedient alterations to external reality. It was transformed into action.”
With these phenomenological descriptions of the mind, it’s easy to see how hard it is to remove stress when pleasure and stress are used as a constant radar to assess the environment. Comparisons of what is good and bad are made in the perceptions of present moment experience, and also in comparisons with memory.
Fantasy
Yet from our experience, it’s possible to escape reality, to enjoy arts and entertainment, and to also entertain ourselves with our thoughts. Freud says the “economic principle of conserving expenditure, seems to manifest itself in the tenacity with which we cling to existing sources of pleasure and the difficulty we have in giving these up. At the inception of the reality principle, one kind of thought activity split away, remaining exempt from reality-testing and continuing to obey only the pleasure principle. This is fantasizing, which begins with children’s play then later, as daydreaming.” All of us can remember examples from our own lives. Have you dreamed of winning a particular lottery but never bought the ticket? Have you thought about asking someone out, but you didn’t? Have you seen a stock do well in the market and imagined that you could go into a time machine and buy the stock when it was 5% of its current price? These are all fantasies that provide an imagined gratification in place of the real thing. Like enjoying a good movie, the story wasn’t real, but the emotions you felt were real.
The principles in childhood sexual development
The need to develop a Reality Principle shows up early on in an individual’s life, with the need to develop sexually and to find a mate. “While the ego drives are undergoing this development, the sexual drives diverge in a highly significant way. The sexual drives initially behave auto-erotically, finding their satisfaction in the subject’s own body and therefore never experiencing the state of frustration that necessitated the introduction of the reality principle. Later, when they do begin the process of finding an object, this is promptly interrupted by the long latency period that delay’s sexual development until puberty. As a result of these two factors – auto-eroticism and latency – the sexual drive is arrested in its psychic development and continues to be ruled for much longer by the pleasure principle, in many people never managing to free itself from this at all.” Freud’s hint at the possibility of arrested development into adulthood. The way out for them is to take the wish and make it real. “As the ego undergoes the transformation from pleasure-ego into reality-ego, the sexual drives undergo the changes that lead from initial auto-eroticism, through various intermediate phases, to object-love in the service of the reproductive function.”
A weak spot found
Unfortunately this educational period for children and adolescents is so long that it becomes a challenge to venture out of fantasy into the reality of taking risks. “The continuing effects of auto-eroticism make it possible for the easier, instantaneous satisfaction of fantasizing about the sexual object to be retained for so long in place of real satisfaction, which involves making efforts and tolerating delays. Repression remains all-powerful in the realm of fantasy; it is able to inhibit ideas…before they reach consciousness – if their being invested with energy could cause a release of unpleasure. This is a weak spot in our psychic organization that can be used to bring already rational thought processes back under the sway of the pleasure principle. Thus an essential element in the psyche’s predisposition to neurosis results from the delay in educating the sexual drive to take account of reality, and from the conditions that make this delay possible.”
Delay of gratification
Despite the need for the pleasure principle to be replaced by the reality principle, Freud cautions against the interpretation that it is a complete replacement. “Just as the pleasure-ego can do nothing but wish, pursue pleasure and avoid unpleasure, so the reality-ego has no other task than to strive for what is useful and to protect itself from what is harmful. By taking over from the pleasure principle, the reality principle is really just safeguarding it, not deposing it, a momentary pleasure with uncertain consequences is given up, but only in order to obtain, by the new approach, a more secure pleasure later on.” An opening for development arises where the subject can now choose to be lost in wishes, or to take action with what is available instead. One can imagine a Freudian patient that now realizes that life is up to them and they must repeatedly act in new directions, take risks, and persist in altering their lives.
The principles in our institutions
Freud views much of our institutions as forms of delay of gratification. “The doctrine that the – voluntary or enforced – renunciation of earthly pleasures will be rewarded in the afterlife is simply a mythopoetic projection of this psychic transformation. Following this principle to its logical conclusion, religions have been able to bring about the absolute renunciation of pleasure in this life in return for the promise of recompense in a future existence; by so doing they have not conquered the pleasure principle. Science comes closest to achieving this conquest, but scientific work, too, provides intellectual pleasure and promises practical gain eventually.”
A natural connection to this thinking process is how our learning institutions work. “Education can without question be described as an impetus to overcoming the pleasure principle and replacing it with the reality principle.” This reminds me of the self-help book industry where people have a desire to improve themselves, but depending on the quality of the book, and the action or inaction of the reader, it may foster more daydreaming. The knowledge must be acted upon, and results gained in real life, to achieve psychological release.
Art
For Freud, artists and their contributions don’t escape his principles. He described how the neurotic perception of the artist can be used as a way to face reality, by making artworks in the real world, especially if others resonate with the artist’s messages. You can see this in the below link to my review of Csikszentmihalyi’s, and Robinson’s, The Art of Seeing: https://rumble.com/v1gvlhb-how-to-appreciate-art-psychology-of-things-22.html
Psychosis and Paranoia
Venturing into more complex territory, Freud uses his principles to describe deeper disconnections with reality. He says, “…(the choice of neurosis) will depend on which phase of ego or libido development the predisposing arrest occurred in.” Our emotions react not just to reality but also to our dreams, wishes, and ideas. This can cause enough conflict in the mind where the grip of reality slips away from the subject leading to pathology, such as false memories, or in more serious cases, psychosis, or paranoia.
“The strangest characteristic of unconscious (repressed) processes…results from their total disregard for reality-testing; thought-reality is equated with external reality, the wish with its fulfillment, just as occurs spontaneously under the rule of the old pleasure principle. For this reason it is extremely difficult to distinguish between unconscious fantasies and memories that have become unconscious. But we should never be tempted to [underestimate] the role played by fantasies in the creation of symptoms just because they are not real, or by attributing a neurotic feeling of guilt to some other source because no actual crime can be ascertained. We have to use the currency that prevails in the country we are exploring – in our case, the neurotic currency.” For Freud, the neurotic currency involves wishes that are in conflict with reality. For example, guilt over socially unacceptable wishes, or the frustration of wishes by obstacles in the way.
Future influences
The principles would also guide Freud in his controversial review of Daniel Paul Schreber’s book, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, one of the most analyzed cases studies in psychology. [See: Daniel Paul Schreber: https://rumble.com/v1gu84v-case-studies-daniel-paul-schreber-freud-and-beyond.html]. With less understanding, in Freud’s time, of psycho-biological breaks with reality, biological problems and thinking errors have yet to be separated.
Freud’s small paper became a foundation for Psychoanalysis, but it still required updating, by Freud himself no less. The upcoming disbanding from some of his followers, and a World War, would be the motivation for Freud to write the influential Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which tackles the problem of why people in many instances actually desire and seek out displeasure.
Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning – Sigmund Freud: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781782203025/
Beyond the Pleasure Principle – Sigmund Freud & Beyond: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780141184050/
The Unconscious – Sigmund Freud: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780141915487/
The Art of Seeing: An Interpretation of the Aesthetic Encounter ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Rick E. Robinson: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780892361564/
Rhetoric – Aristotle – Book I, Chapter 11.: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0060%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D11
Harold P. Blum (2004) Beneath and Beyond the “Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning”, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 59:1, 240-257, DOI: 10.1080/00797308.2004.11800740
Psychology: https://psychreviews.org/category/psychology01/