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'''''Beyond the Pleasure Principle''''' (first published in [[German language|German]] in [[1920]] as '''''Jenseits des Lustprinzips''''') is an essay by [[Sigmund Freud]]. It marked a turning point and a major modification of his previous theoretical approach. Before this essay, Freud was understood to have placed the sexual instinct, [[Eros (Freud)|Eros]], or the [[libido]], centre stage, in explaining the forces which drive us to act. In 1920, going "beyond" the simple [[pleasure principle (psychology)|pleasure principle]], Freud developed his theory of [[drive (psychology)|drive]]s, by adding [[Thanatos (Freud)|Thanatos]], also known as the [[death instinct]].
The main importance of the essay resides in the striking picture of human being, struggling between two opposing instincts or drives: [[Eros]] working for creativity, harmony, sexual connection, reproduction, and self-preservation; Thanatos for destruction, repetition, aggression, compulsion, and self-destruction.
In sections IV and V Freud posits that the process which cause cell death at a microscopic level might have developed in order to give human beings a death instinct as individuals. This theory has generally been discredited.
Freud also took the opportunity to state the basic differences, as he saw them, between his approach and that of [[Carl Jung]], and covered the history so far of research into the basic drives (Section VI).
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Freud]]
[[Category:Works]]
[[Category:Freudian Works]]
The main importance of the essay resides in the striking picture of human being, struggling between two opposing instincts or drives: [[Eros]] working for creativity, harmony, sexual connection, reproduction, and self-preservation; Thanatos for destruction, repetition, aggression, compulsion, and self-destruction.
In sections IV and V Freud posits that the process which cause cell death at a microscopic level might have developed in order to give human beings a death instinct as individuals. This theory has generally been discredited.
Freud also took the opportunity to state the basic differences, as he saw them, between his approach and that of [[Carl Jung]], and covered the history so far of research into the basic drives (Section VI).
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Freud]]
[[Category:Works]]
[[Category:Freudian Works]]
