View source for Pleasure principle (psychology)


In [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] psychology, the '''pleasure principle''' is the [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic]] concept describing people seeking [[pleasure]] and avoiding [[suffering]] (pain) in order to satisfy their biological and psychological needs.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Snyder
  | first = C. R.
  | authorlink = C. R. Snyder
  | coauthors = Lopez, Shane J.
  | title = Positive Psychology
  | publisher = Sage Publications, Inc.
  | date = 2007
  | pages = 147 
  | isbn = 076192633X}}
</ref> Furthermore, the counterpart concept, the [[reality principle]], describes people choosing to defer gratification of a desire when circumstantial reality disallows its immediate gratification. In infancy and early childhood, the [[Id, ego, and super-ego|Id]] rules behavior by obeying only the pleasure principle. Maturity is learning to endure the pain of deferred gratification, when reality requires it; thus, the [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalitic]] [[Sigmund Freud]] proposes that “an ego thus educated has become ‘reasonable’; it no longer lets itself be governed by the pleasure principle, but obeys the [[reality principle]], which also, at bottom, seeks to obtain pleasure, but pleasure which is assured through taking account of reality, even though it is pleasure postponed and diminished”.<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''Introductory Lectures'' 16.357.</ref>


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