How Freud's Pleasure Principle Works

In Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the pleasure principle is the driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and urges. In other words, the pleasure principle strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges, including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of anxiety or tension.

Let's take a closer look at how the pleasure principle works and how it drives behavior, but also the forces that help keep the pleasure principle in line and help us behave in socially acceptable ways.

Understanding the Pleasure Principle

The pleasure principle suggests we are motivated to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. Sometimes referred to as the pleasure-pain principle, this motivating force helps drive behavior, but it also wants instant satisfaction.

As you might imagine, some needs cannot be met when we feel them. If we satisfy our every whim whenever we feel hunger or thirst, for example, we might find ourselves behaving in ways that are not appropriate for the given moment.

To counter these basic, primitive urges, Freud also believed that there are opposing forces that help moderate our behavior. By reigning in the demands of the pleasure principles, we can then act in ways that are appropriate and acceptable.

How the Pleasure Principle Works

In order to understand how the pleasure principle works, it is important to know a bit more about Freud's theory in general.

The Id

The pleasure principle is the force powering the part of personality known as the id. In Freud's theory of personality, the id is the most basic and animalistic part of the personality. It is also the only part of the personality that Freud believed was present from birth.

The id is one of the strongest motivating forces, but it is the part of the personality that is buried at the deepest, unconscious level. It consists of all of our most basic urges and desires, but we are not always consciously aware of these desires.

How the Pleasure Principle Develops

During early childhood, the id controls the majority of behavior. Children act on their urges for food, water, and various forms of pleasure. The pleasure principle guides the id to fulfill these basic needs to help ensure survival. 

Sigmund Freud noticed that very young children often try to satisfy these biological needs as quickly as possible, with little or no thought given to whether or not the behavior is considered acceptable. This works out great when you're a kid, but what happens as we age and our childish behaviors become less and less acceptable?

The Reality Principle vs. the Pleasure Principle

The pleasure principle does not influence behavior in isolation. Instead, Freud suggested that the development of the ego helped control the demands of the id's pleasure principle.

The Ego

As children mature, the ego develops to help control the urges of the id. The ego is concerned with reality. It helps ensure that the id's needs are met, but in ways that are acceptable in the real world.

The ego operates through what Freud referred to as the reality principle. This reality principle is the opposing force to the instinctual urges of the pleasure principle.

Examples of the Reality Principle

Imagine that a very young child is thirsty. They might simply grab a glass of water out of another person's hands and begin guzzling it down. The pleasure principle dictates that the id will seek out the most immediate way to gratify this need.

Once the ego has developed, however, the reality principle will push the ego to look for more realistic and acceptable ways to fill these needs. Instead of simply grabbing someone else's water, the child will ask if they can also have a glass.

In our earlier example, rather than grabbing your boss's water bottle when you feel thirsty in the middle of a meeting, the reality principle urges you to wait until a more acceptable time to fulfill your thirst. Instead, you wait until the meeting is over and retrieve your own water bottle from your office.

Effects of the Pleasure Principle

While the reality principle ideally works to balance out the pleasure principle, this does not always happen smoothly.

• Impulsivity: Freud's theory suggests that the pleasure principle can explain impulsive behaviors. This may be more common in childhood before the ego is fully developed, but it often affects adults as well.
• Maladaptive behaviors: If people struggle with unmet needs, the pleasure principle might compel them to seek relief. Such behaviors might provide temporary pleasure but often come with long-term consequences.
• Addiction: Addiction may lead people to seek pleasure regardless of negative consequences.
• Poor decisions: In some instances, people may make poor choices based on a desire for immediate pleasure rather than making a better choice that results in more favorable long-term rewards.

Summary

In Freud's theory of personality, he identified the pleasure principle as the force that compels people to seek pleasure and avoid pain. If it existed in isolation, it might lead people to fulfill their desires regardless of the consequences. However, Freud also believed that the ego, acting on what he called the reality principle, manages to mediate between the pleasure principle and the demands of reality.