Pleasure principle

The principle of pleasure ( German Lustprinzip ) is one of the four principles of the mental apparatus in the theory of Sigmund Freud , along with the principle of permanence , the principle of nirvana and the principle of obsessive repetition .

The principle of pleasure describes the desire of the psyche to reduce stress to a minimum level. Therefore, in the 1920 work “ Beyond the pleasure principle ”, Freud makes a paradoxical conclusion, saying that “the pleasure principle is subordinate to the death drive ” - both strive to bring the body to a minimum level - ideally zero - mental stress. In the seminar “Object Relations,” Jacques Lacan compares pleasure with envy , no matter how opposite they may seem: “... pleasure is not connected with idleness, but with envy or an erection of desire,” he says in a lecture on December 5, 1956.