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"[[pleasure principle]]" ([[Fr]]. ''{{Top}}principe de [[principe de plaisir]]''){{Bottom}}

Even when ==Sigmund Freud==According to [[LacanFreud]] uses , the [[pleasure principle]] is one of the word "two principles of [[pleasuremental]]functioning" on its own, he is always referring to -- the [[other]] [[being]] the [[reality principle]]. The [[pleasure principle]] directs all mental or [[psychical]] [[activity]] towards obtaining -- maximizing -- [[pleasure]] and avoiding -- minimizing -- [[pleasure|unpleasure]]. All mental or psychical activity is directed -- by the [[pleasure ''principle'']], -- towards obtaining [[pleasure]] and never to a sensationavoiding [[pleasure|unpleasure]].

The ===Beyond the Pleasure Principle===[[Freud]] suggests that there is something "[[beyond the pleasure principle]] is one of " -- namely the "two principles of mental functioning" posted by [[Freuddeath drive]]s -- which attempt to reduce [[psychic]] in his metapsychological writings (the other being the tension to zero, and thus to return [[reality principleliving]])beings to an inorganic state.

==Jacques Lacan==For [[Lacan]] the [[pleasure principle]] is an obstacle to ''[[jouissance]]' that takes the [[subject]] to that extreme point where the [[erotic]] borders upon [[death]] and where [[subjectivity]] risks extinction. The [[pleasure principle]] is closely linked -- closely related -- to the [[prohibition]] of [[incest]], the [[symbolic law]] and the regulation of [[desire]]. The [[pleasure principle]] aims exclusively at avoiding is "that which regulates the distance between the subject and ''[[das Ding]]''. In [[Chronology|1960]], [[unpleasureLacan]] develops an important opposition between [[pleasure]] and obtaining ''[[jouissance]]''. ''[[Jouissance]]'' is an excessive quantity of excitation which the [[pleasureprinciple]] tries to prevent. The [[pleasure principle]] is a commandment -- which can be phrased -- "[[Enjoy]]as little as possible."''

[[Lacan]]'s first extended discussion of describes the [[pleasure principle]] appears in the [[seminar]] of 1954-5. Here [[Lacan]] compares the [[pleasure principle]] to a homeostatic device that aims at maintaining excitation at the lowest function level.<ref>{{S2L}} p.79-80</ref> This accords with "[[Seminar II|Le moi dans la théorie de Freudet dans la technique de la psychanalyse]]'s thesis that [[unpleasure]] is related to the increase of quantities of excitation, and [[pleasure]] to their reduction. [[Lacan]] opposes the [[pleasure principle]], which he dubs the "restitutive tendency," to the [[death drive]] (the "repetitive tendency"), The Ego in accordance with [[Freud]]'s view that the [[death driveTheory]] is "beyond the pleasure principle."<ref>{{S2}} p.79-80</ref> -- In 1960, [[Lacan]] develops what soon comes to be an important concept and in his work; the idea of an opposition between [[pleasureTechnique]] and ''[[jouissance]]''. ''[[Jouissance]]'' is now defined as an excessive quantity of excitation which the [[pleasure principlePsychoanalysis]] attempts to prevent. 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> [[Pleasure]] is the safeguard of a state of homeostasis and constancy which ''[[jouissance]]'' constantly threatens to disrupt and [[trauma]]tize. <blockquote>The function of the pleasure principle is, in effect, to lead the subject from signifier to signifier, by generating as amny signifiers as are required to maintain at as low a level as possible the tension that regulates the whole functioning of the psychic apparatus.<ref>{{S7}} p.119</ref></blockquote> 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> When the [[subject]] transgresses this prohibition, gets too near to the [[Thing]], then he suffers. Since it is the drives which permit the subject to transgress the pleasure principle, it follows that every drive is a death drive. 1954-- 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]]5. The pleasure principle is thus "nothing else than the dominance of the signifier."<ref>{{S7}} p.134</ref> 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. Indeed, some of Lacan's descriptions of the pleasure principle make it sound almost identical to the repetition compulsion.  <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}} pUnpublished.68</ref></blockquote>  ==See Also==* [[Death drive]]* ''[[Jouissance]]''* [[Reality principle]]* [[Repetition compulsion]]

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