Introduction
The pleasure principle is a drive to behavior and thoughts which seek pleasure and avoid negative emotions. While Freud recognizes this, he suggests that the principal does not solely dominate mental processes since that would be impossible. Therefore, psychological analysis implies that there is a continuous opposition between the pleasure principle (eros) and the aspects that go beyond (Thanatos) which are death and repetition. This demonstrated a major turning point in Freud’s perspective that all human action is based on libido but rather a complex interaction of life and death. Freud offers specific examples of beyond the pleasure principle which as children’s games, recurring dreams, self-harming, and repetition compulsion.
Main body
It was particularly interesting to read about the repetition compulsion that Freud observed in his grandson. Re-enacting an inherently traumatic event, even as a game, as a manner of feeling control over a situation we experience is traumatic is at the same time self-destructive but therapeutic. Freud could not categorize repetition compulsion as a premise of the pleasure principle and deduced it to be a separate aspect. Freud’s observation in the beyond the pleasure principle served as early research into therapies and psychological state for conditions such as PTSD that are well-known in the modern-day.
Conclusion
Ultimately, all these elements of the beyond the pleasure principle beginning with a child’s game to self-harm and recurring dreams are examples of repetition compulsion. It is a psychological technique that relieves the pressure of the trauma, no matter its extent, from a mother leaving her child for a few hours to veterans of a horrific war. However, it may also be an opening to self-destructive forces which lead to masochism. Overall, the principle represents a dual nature of man which strives for pleasure and to an extent good and love, but also a side that is seeking to die and destroy.