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| − | "[[pleasure principle]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[principe de plaisir]]'')
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| − | Even when [[Lacan]] uses the word "[[pleasure]]" on its own, he is always referring to the [[pleasure principle|pleasure ''principle'']], and never to a sensation.
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| − | The [[pleasure principle]] is one of the "two principles of mental functioning" posted by [[Freud]] in his metapsychological writings (the other being the [[reality principle]]).
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| − | The [[pleasure principle]] aims exclusively at avoiding [[unpleasure]] and obtaining [[pleasure]].
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| − | [[Lacan]]'s first extended discussion of the [[pleasure principle]] appears in the [[seminar]] of 1954-5.
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| − | Here [[Lacan]] compares the [[pleasure principle]] to a homeostatic device that aims at maintaining excitation at the lowest function level.<ref>{{S2}} p.79-80</ref>
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| − | This accords with [[Freud]]'s thesis that [[unpleasure]] is related to the increase of quantities of excitation, and [[pleasure]] to their reduction.
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| − | [[Lacan]] opposes the [[pleasure principle]], which he dubs the "restitutive tendency," to the [[death drive]] (the "repetitive tendency"), in accordance with [[Freud]]'s view that the [[death drive]] is "beyond the pleasure principle."<ref>{{S2}} p.79-80</ref>
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| − | In 1960, [[Lacan]] develops what soon comes to be an important concept in his work; the idea of an opposition between [[pleasure]] and ''[[jouissance]]''.
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| − | ''[[Jouissance]]'' is now defined as an excessive quantity of excitation which the [[pleasure principle]] attempts to prevent.
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| − | The [[pleasure principle]] is thus seen as a [[symbolic]] [[law]], a commandment which can be phrased "Enjoy as little as possible" (which is why [[Freud]] originally called it the ''unpleasure'' principle).<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. SE V. 1900a. p.574</ref>
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| − | [[Pleasure]] is the safeguard of a state of homeostasis and constancy which ''[[jouissance]]'' constantly threatens to disrupt and [[trauma]]tize.
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| − | Put another way, the [[pleasure principle]] is the [[prohibition]] on [[incest]], "that which regulates the distance between the subject and ''das Ding."<ref>{{S7}} p.69</ref>
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| − | When the [[subject]] transgresses this prohibition, gets too near to the [[Thing]], then he suffers.
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| − | Since it is the drives which permit the subject to transgress the pleasure principle, it follows that every drive is a death drive.
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| − | Since the pleasure principle is related to prohibition, to the law, and to regulation, it is clearly on the side of the symbolic, whereas ''jouissance'' is on the side of the [[real]].
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| − | The pleasure principle is thus "nothing else than the dominance of the signifier."<ref>{{S7}} p.134</ref>
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| − | This involves Lacan in a paradox, since the symbolic is also the realm of the [[repetition compulsion]], which is, in [[Freud]]'s terms, precisely that which goes ''beyond'' the pleasure principle.
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| − | Indeed, some of Lacan's descriptions of the pleasure principle make it sound almost identical to the repetition compulsion.
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| − | <blockquote>"The function of the pleasure principle is to make man always search for what he has to find again, but which he will never attain."<ref>{{S7}} p.68</ref></blockquote>
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| − | ==See Also==
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| − | * [[Death drive]]
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| − | * ''[[Jouissance]]''
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| − | * [[Reality principle]]
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| − | * [[Repetition compulsion]]
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| − | ==References==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | [[Category:Dictionary]]
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| − | [[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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| − | [[Category:Terms]]
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| − | [[Category:Concepts]]
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| − | [[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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| − | [[Category:Sexuality]]
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