On Freuds Beyond the Pleasure Principle - Essay Example

Essay, Gender and Sexual studies Introduction Sigmund Freud is regarded as the founding father of psychoanalysis. He was born in 1856 and died in 1939. Freud’s works have shaped opinions in different fields such as culture, religion and medicine (Thurschwell, 2009). His work has covered modern western ideas and accepted culture. Freud put focus on human life. He focused on what drives life and death by coming up with life and death instincts. Freud’s focus led to one of his major theories, beyond the pleasure principle. In this theory, Freud discusses sexuality in a manner that is reminiscent of early Greek culture and ancient Christian notions of sexuality. Ancient Notions Freud relied on ancient notions on sexuality in order to focus on what drives life and death. Understanding some of these notions is of great importance because they help in explaining how Freud was able to come up with notions on life and death. Aristophanes’ Speech in the symposium Aristophanes was a prominent poet from Greece. In the symposium, Aristophanes gives a speech that is based on the basis of love. He describes love as a powerful aspect in a human being. He goes on to discredit human beings for not understanding love and for neglecting it. He describes love as a god. According to him, human beings should build temples in honor of love, which is fair to them. He also describes love as a helper, man’s best friend and a healer of all predicaments that deny human beings happiness. According to Aristophanes, man has transformed over the years. The sexes were also different and actually three unlike today where they are two, man and woman. The sexes originally entailed the union between a man and a woman, man and woman (Hobby, 2009). The ancient man was originally round in figure. He had four hands and four feet. He also had one head that had two faces which faced opposite directions. He also had the power to move round and round due to his circular figure. Aristophanes explained that the sexes were three because they each belonged to a different parent. Man belonged to the sun. The woman was the earth’s child. The union between man and woman belonged to the moon. They sexes were able to move round and round just like their parents. He describes the sexes as powerful and mighty, and their thoughts were great too. The sexes later on attempted to attack the gods by scaling to heaven (Hobby, 2009). The gods were angered by these actions and they decided to cut them into two. This was meant to diminish their power and strength and to also increase their numbers. The gods aim was to subdue and punish them. Human beings began to walk on two legs, but the gods vowed to make them hop on one leg should they revolt again. The sexes after being split became different halves. The halves would spend their time looking for each other. They would hug and wish to be together again after finding each other. The problem was that they would do nothing other than hugging after meeting. This led to their death. The gods felt mercy on the sexes and decided to shift their genitals to the front. This was aimed at creating reproduction in human beings (Hobby, 2009) . Aristophanes describes all human beings as a half of the whole. Men who spilt from the union end up searching for women. Women who split from women find each other while men who split from men search each other. In our modern society, men and women who find people of the same sex are referred to as gay people. Aristophanes describes such people as strong. Aristophanes concluded his speech by defining love as the search for wholeness. He also stated that for our human race to prosper, men and women should ensure that love comes to its ideal conclusion. Galen’s Discussion of Sex Galen’s ideas of soul, sex and gender entrenched themselves into doctrines explaining sin, sex and the soul. Galen relied on four Greek ideas that relate to the body. They include, hot, wet, cold and dry. He argued out that females are not as perfect as males. This is because they are considered as cold. Galen also states that women possess the same body parts as men (Carey, 2013). The main difference is that the parts lie internally in women. In men, the parts lie outside. Galen takes into consideration the reproductive system in both male and female. Galen notes down the matching shapes of the vagina and penis, uterus and scrotum, and ovaries and testes. He cited coldness as the reason for the difference. Women’s temperature’s are cold and prohibits some of their organs from developing outside the body (Carey, 2013). He also points out that gender does not actually differentiate women and men, but rather links them. Heat makes men more perfect than women. He also linked semen to the reproduction and existence of the soul. According to Galen, a lot of sex leads to body weakness. Galen cites sex as a way in which nature tries to achieve immortality. Sex leads to creation of life. This helps in ensuring immortality. Galen also came up with models that explained the act of having sex. Sex is as a result of heated temperatures that turn men’s blood to semen. He termed reproduction as a process which results from the massive pleasure and heat generated from the male and female genitals as they rub together (Carey, 2013). Women require pleasure to generate their own seed. Galen’s discussions on sex have been of great importance to physicians and have helped in enhancing pleasure in women. Physicians in the eighteenth century would use Galen’s ideas to stimulate pleasure in women who were infertile in order to enhance pleasure in them. Beyond the Pleasure Principle Beyond the pleasure principle was published in the year 1920 and its main architect was Sigmund Freud. Freud used the principle to develop his theory on what drives life and death. Freud came up with two drives. They were Eros and Thanatos. Eros creates harmony, creativity, reproduction, sexual bonds and self perpetuation. Thanatos creates repetition, compulsion, aggression and self devastation. The essay has six sections. The first part of the essay, beyond the pleasure principle, starts with Freud explaining the notion of the pleasure principle. Freud states that human beings have a natural drive toward experiencing gratification and keeping pain away (Freud, 2010). This means that the experience of gratification or pleasure conflicts with some drives. One of the conflicting drives is the principle on reality. This principle leads to postponement of pleasure. The first part comes to an end with Freud making clear his intention to examine how the human mind reacts to external peril. The second part of the essay examines trauma. The third section analyses how patients recreate certain experiences that culminated to their present mental condition. The fourth and fifth sections examine biological and also human perceptions. These two sections are regarded as controversial. According to Freud, human beings possess a desire to go back to an earlier state of balance. In this case, a state of balance refers to a state of non-existence. Freud went ahead to claim that death is one of the first instincts to be created by macrobiotic life (Akhtar, 2011). Death as an instinct is often in conflict with libido. According to Freud, Libido is a replacement for perfection. This means that the establishment of a new life replaces an individual’s accomplishment of perfection. An individual cannot accomplish perfection due to the unavoidability of death. The sixth section examines Freud’s idea on the origin of death. According to Freud, human beings acquired death late in their development. Freud has also drawn comparison between Eros and Libido (Freud, 2010). In this section, Freud ponders over sexuality and its origin. The last section is brief and is mainly a summary of the pleasure principle and instincts. Freud also calls for more research on the principle and the instincts. Re-interpretation and Re-framing of ancient notions in light of Life and death Drives Freud referred to the life drive as Eros and the death drive as Thanatos. The life drive comprises earthly desires or pursuits such as survival, thirst and sex. Thanatos refers to the desire to go back to a state of calmness (Erdem, 2009). Life intuitions create some energy referred to as libido. The life drive is full of behaviors such as love, social activities and cooperation. In his own focus on life and death drives, Freud re-interpreted and re-framed some of the ancient notions. The notions have been mentioned above. Freud has reframed Aristophanes speech in the symposium to explain beyond the pleasure principle in which we all aim at going back to our state of balance. In the pleasure principle, a person rejects or welcomes stimuli from outside their body and also from inside their body. This bears a similarity to Aristophanes speech which talks about human beings pursuit of love and belonging. According to Aristophanes, after human beings were split from each other they started finding each other (Krull, 2006). The gods changed human bodies in order to enhance reproduction. Freud has invoked this ancient notion to explain how the body achieves pleasure. In Aristophanes’ speech, people pursue love while in Freud’s principle people pursue pleasure. Freud examined an equilibrium state and what drives it. He relied on Aristophanes view that human beings were split and constantly endeavor to reconnect with their other half in order to be whole again. Once they find each other, their only desire is to lose themselves in each other through sex (Krull, 2006). Freud develops his notion from these views. He finds sex as a drive in which human beings endeavor to go back to a primeval state. Human beings were not individual units in the primeval state, but existed as an immense mass of creatures made up of single cells. Freud’s focus on life and death stipulates that the life drive aims to preserve and create life. Eros is concerned with behaviors that support a pleasant society. These behaviors include love, collaboration and cooperation (Erdem, 2009). This notion bears a similarity to Aristophanes views aired during the symposium. According to Aristophanes, the gods split human beings into two. The gods also realized that human beings in their endeavor to find their other half often ended dying after finding their other half. The gods, thus, shifted their genitals to the front in order for them to reproduce. Reproduction was aimed at creating and preserving life. Freud heavily borrowed from this notion to explain how sexual instincts form part of life drive. Thenatos pushes human beings to an inert state. Freud was of the view that drives move towards previous states. He evoked Aristophanes view that human beings after being split would try to find each other in order to go back to their previous state. In Aristophanes speech, the split halves aimed at achieving equilibrium after finding each other (Krull, 2006). This bears similarity to Freud’s view that the death drive aims to return human beings to a final equilibrium. Freud defines the death drive as an unconscious process. Freud uses Aristophanes notion that human beings after being split would find each other and lose themselves in sexual acts which made them achieve a state of wholeness. Freud is of the view that sexual intuitions, which form part of the life drive, lead to immortality. This is reminiscent of Galen’s discussion on sex and immortality. Freud argues that sex intuitions prolong life by creating and preserving it (Freud, 2010). Prolonging of life resembles immortality. In Galen’s discussion on sex, he argues that sex helps in creating new life. He cited heat as a key factor during sex. Males heat up and produce semen which fuses with the females seed to create life. Galen terms sex as a method of attaining immortality. According to Galen, nature relies on sex to ensure her own immortality. Freud, thus, argues that human beings achieve immortality through sex. Freud in his focus on life and death also evoked prehistoric Christian ideas of sexuality. Freud came up with the term libido to describe the forces that drive all human behavior. Libido refers to energy that is created by sexual and survival intuitions. Libido is expressed differently depending on the stage one is in. Freud came up with a phenomenon referred to as repetition compulsion. In this notion, he describes daemonic forces as the driving force to repeat things which seem primitive (Akhtar, 2011). Freud draws his line of thought from a saying that describes persistent errors as the work of the devil. Libido and daemonic forces both control human beings. Freud’s use of the terms libido, daemonic forces and sexual instinct evokes prehistoric Christian ideas of sexuality. Early Christian ideas of sexuality viewed human beings as subjects of sexuality. Human beings do not act willingly on sexuality (Skinner, 2013). Sexuality controls human beings. This means that human beings often engage in sexual activities unconsciously. Sexuality also places human beings between two conflicting drives: sexual and death drives. Human beings struggle to create and preserve life, and return to an inert state. Conclusion Sigmund Freud came up with two types of instincts. He came up with intuitions or instincts that lead to death and those that renew life. Instincts that lead to death are referred to as death instincts. Instincts that renew life are referred to as sexual instincts or life instincts. Human beings are at the center of conflicts between the two instincts. Freud used the term Ethos to refer to life drives and Thanatos to refer to death drives. Eros creates harmony, creativity, reproduction, sexual bonds and self perpetuation. Thanatos creates repetition, compulsion, aggression and self devastation (Freud, 2010). Freud discusses sexuality in a manner that is reminiscent of early Greek culture and ancient Christian notions of sexuality. He relied on Aristophanes speech during a symposium to explain his concept of pleasure and completeness. According to Aristophanes, The sexes originally included the union between a man and a woman, man and woman. The ancient man was originally round in figure. The sexes rebelled against the gods and were split into two. The split halves would endeavor to find each other in order to achieve a state of wholeness or completeness. Galen states that women possess the same body parts as men. The main difference is that the parts lie internally in women. In men, the parts lie outside. Galen cites sex as a way in which nature tries to achieve immortality. Sex leads to creation of life (Erdem, 2009). This helps in ensuring immortality. Freud evoked these idea from Galen to explain how sexual intuitions help in achieving immortality by creating life. Freud is of the view that sex prolongs life. Freud also evokes prehistoric Christian ideas of sexuality. The notions held that sex was a force that drove human beings into unwilling acts (Skinner, 2013). Freud came up with the terms libido, daemonic forces and sexual instincts in reference to the historic ideas of sexuality. Early Christian ideas of sexuality viewed human beings as subjects of sexuality. Sexuality controls human beings. References Akhtar, S. (2011). On Freud’s “Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: New Press. Carey, C. (2013). Eros in Ancient Greece. New York: New York University press. Erdem, C. (2009). The Life Death Drives. Massachusetts: McGraw Hill. Freud, S. (2010). Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: New York University press. Hobby, B. (2009). Human Sexuality. London: Routledge Krull, K. (2006). Sigmund Freud. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Skinner, M. (2013). Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture. New York: Lea and Blanchard. Thurschwell, P. (2009). Sigmund Freud. New York: New Press. Read More