Beyond the Pleasure Principle - Freud

Psycho Analysis = the Art of Interpreting

Pleasure Principle vs. Reality Principle:

The Pleasure Principle: we look at pleasure through the avoidance of unpleasure or absence of perceivable unpleasure. This gives way to conditions of stability and instability. The theories can be seen through "children's play" like Peek-a-Boo. In a twisted way, when you really think about the effects this has on children - suddenly vanishing by covering our faces, is a bit abusive to a child's psyche. We relish in the pleasure it brings when you reveal our face again and the child is naturally relieved that we reappeared and they aren't left alone. Kids go on to emulate these activities over and over, seeking the pleasure while accepting the unpleasure (having insurmountable effects on the childhood experiences, causing the ego unpleasure through the compulsion to repeat thus haunt him in adulthood, and will no doubt end up dealing with the repression via couch chats for many years). Freud concludes that this activity of repetition is a primal instinct which would seem to have bearing on repoduction.

Freud's couch


Instincts drive the need for self preservation culminating into the sexual instinct. Through repetition of this instinct stays off death, aiding in immortality. Making the Death (or the death instinct) the opposite of the Sex (or the sexual instinct).



In the "Two Figures" by Francis Bacon, it is said that "sex and death define the instability/repression he attempts to release through his expression."

"The creative process is a cocktail of instinct, skill, culture and a highly creative feverishness. It is not like a drug; it is a particular state when everything happens very quickly, a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, of fear and pleasure; it’s a little like making love, the physical act of love." Francis Bacon




Sarah Lucas
Beyond the Pleasure Principle 2000

Lucas''s bawdy humour takes a darker turn in this work. She uses a variety of household objects to produce a witty metaphor for sexual activity. However, the comic references contrast with the sobering presence of a cardboard coffin. The title refers to a seminal text by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. He suggested that the drive for life is matched by an equal and opposite drive for death, so that pleasure is bound up with destruction. (From the display caption @Tate, May 2002)