pleasure principle

American  

noun

Psychoanalysis.

1. an automatic mental drive or instinct seeking to avoid pain and to obtain pleasure.

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pleasure principle British  

noun

1. psychoanal the idea that psychological processes and actions are governed by the gratification of needs. It is seen as the governing process of the id, whereas the reality principle is the governing process of the ego See also hedonism

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pleasure principle Cultural  

1. In psychoanalysis, the demand that an instinctive need (usually sexual or aggressive) be gratified, regardless of the social or practical consequences. Sigmund Freud held that the id was dominated totally by the pleasure principle, but that, with the development of the ego and superego, individuals become aware of the demands of social reality (the reality principle), and thereby learn to temper and regulate their quest for pleasure.

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Etymology

Origin of pleasure principle

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

It won’t if we adopt a Mozartean pleasure principle that is substantive, not superficial.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 30, 2021

I wanted to edit this anthology with the pleasure principle.

From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2021

The excessive, destabilising bit of the pleasure principle that’s channelling the death drive.

From The Guardian • Dec. 24, 2019

These are cinephile movies that venerate the form but refuse to let their intelligence obviate the pleasure principle.

From New York Times • Oct. 11, 2018

The transition from the pleasure principle to that of fact is the most important advance in the development of the ego.

From A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Freud, Sigmund