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Results for “PLEASURE-PAIN PRINCIPLE”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Adolescence and the repetition compulsion.

I describe the connexion between the failure of the procedures of adolescence and the establishment of a psychical economy dominated by the repetition compulsion. The concept of the repetition compulsion appears as early as in 1914, in 'Remembering, repeating and working-through', but is not clearly specified as a characteristic of instinctual functioning until 1919 and 1920, in 'The "Uncanny" and 'Beyond the pleasure principle'. In these two works, Freud presents what amounts to a model of the disorganization of the mental apparatus observed in 'breaks' in the adolescent process when the capacity to bind instinctual excitation in the primary process is swamped. Decompensation is precipitated by the change in the reality principle (de facto infantile impotence becoming adult potency). The repetition compulsion, in the strict sense of the term, is a matter of 'crude', unbound instincts. Moreover, the idea emerges from Freud's two texts that the instinctual demand manifested through the repetition compulsion is the persistence of the incestuous and parricidal wish. This is borne out by my analytical experience, as the two treatments I adduce to illustrate the theory show.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Masochism: a clinical and theoretical overview.

This paper will review some of the theoretical and clinical features of masochism from an eclectic point of view. The topic of masochism has been taken up by authors of many perspectives because it addresses one of the anomalous, absurd, difficult-to-explain aspects of behavior for which no psychological system has an easy answer. Therefore, a wide-ranging literature on the topic of masochism is available. However, few previous reviewers have attempted to draw from a variety of disciplines and theoretical frameworks. In this review the historical development of the term and some of the psychoanalytic conceptualizations will be presented first. Since previous reviews of masochism from a strictly psychoanalytic perspective are adequate (Brenner, 1959; Eisenbud, 1967; Fenichel, 1945; Loewenstein, 1957; Panken, 1967), our discussions of masochism will be developed employing more extensively the interpersonal, social, learning theory, and biological perspectives.

Conflict, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Thinking through the hungry baby. Toward a new pleasure principle.

Freud's metapsychological paradigm and his conception of the neonate were closely linked. The vignette of the "hungry baby" epitomizes Freud's pain-centered, pragmatic understanding of primary motivational forces. Within the range of mainstream psychoanalytic theory, this point of view has remained essential, although in recent decades it has been supplemented in important ways by a more object-centered, moral perspective on character development. But psychoanalysis still lacks a positive metapsychological formulation of pleasure as a motivation in its own right. This paper explores the problem in the light of recent infant research and of Hartmann's systematic reflections on metapsychology.

Arousal↗
PubMed1979

Neurobiologic correlates with defense mechanisms and psychotherapy.

It is proposed that repression, regression, and other defenses are associated with various transmitter systems under the guidance of the predominantly serotonergic, aversive, and the noradrenergic reward centers. The alteration of total and base composition of glial and neuronal RNA and the inferred encoding of memory are applied to the formation of neurosis and to psychotherapy.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

The transference neurosis in Freud's writings.

This paper reviews the evolution of the concept of transference neurosis in Freud's writings. It suggests that the language in which the concept of the transference neurosis is originally expressed by Freud includes an idea of the analyst as aggressively pursuing the analytic cure by waging a solitary battle against the patient's disease. With the representation of the death drive and the larger role accorded to sadism as its external manifestation in Freud's revised drive theory of 1920, the patient becomes the ally; resistance, in the sense of the conservative forces, not disease, in the sense of libidinal conflict, becomes the enemy. It is thus difficult to speak of a transference neurosis in the circumscribed way Freud originally meant it, and he ceased to use the term after 1926 rather than redefine it to fit his broader perspective. In this broader perspective, relative resolution of conflict replaced radical liberation of the patient from disease. That Freud did not redefine the term does not imply that he discarded it, or that we necessarily should. This paper suggests that Freud implied a functional distinction between transference as transforming agent and transference neurosis as result of that transformation. That distinction defines psychoanalytic cure in terms of the understanding of a symbolic transformation which is, through the transference neurosis, reexperienced as part of the psychoanalytic process.

Countertransference↗
PubMed1990

Alcohol consumption and pain phobia: toward a unifying theory of alcoholism.

An attempt is made to contribute toward a unifying theory of alcoholism with the concept of "pain phobia" as its central factor. A brief theoretical exposition of pain phobia is offered and results of an empirical study are presented which lend considerable support to the position that pain phobia may be a central factor underlying alcoholism. The research utilizes the Pain Phobia Scale (PPS) as the measure of pain phobia and finds that pain phobia is present to a significantly greater degree in problem drinkers than a norm group and that pain phobia also discriminates non-problem drinkers in the degree of their consumption of alcohol. Suggestions are made for how the concept of pain phobia and the PPS can be useful in the treatment and prevention of alcoholism. The possible relationship between pain phobia and all addictions is also considered.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Rational suicide: a test of the prescriptions of Epicurus concerning suicide.

The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that the individual who believes death is the end and who expects to experience more displeasure than pleasure over the remainder of his life will choose suicide. College students (N = 272) completed questionnaires measuring their beliefs about after-life, expectations of pleasure and displeasure should certain negative events happen to them, and expectations of suicide should these negative events happen to them. Support was not found for the hypothesis. The students who believed that death was the end stated that they would choose to live even if negative events promised them a life of greater displeasure than pleasure.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

A perversion named desire.

Inspired by the title of the work, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the author argues that desire and perversion are equivalent, based on the following. (1) The notion of infanatile sexuality as polymorphously perverse, and whose components constitute the 'core of our unconscious' and the ultimate 'matter' of unconscious desire. (2) The perspective of narcissism, which establishes desire, supported by the theory that maternity implants an illusion of completeness which culture promotes, despite the fact that such an ideal conflicts with the laws governing the foundation of culture. (3) The resulting forms of the oedipal complex and the castration complex, whether man or woman, imply a visible or unapparent violence with regard to the original 'call' of desire. (4) The traditional structures refer to the possibility of the mother imagining herself as completed by the child: the blocking of that illusion is associated with psychosis; the weakness of the desire, once established, demands, in the context of perversion, the presence of the figure of plenitude. Neurosis prefers its absence on the level of the apparent while insuring its permanence on the unconscious level.

Drama↗
PubMed1990

"A dream is the fulfillment of a wish': traumatic dream, repetition compulsion, and the pleasure principle.

This paper describes the case of a battle veteran who suffered from a repetitive traumatic dream and symptoms of a traumatic stress disorder. Psychodynamic exploration revealed the basic wish-fulfilling aspects of both the dream and the fact of its repetition. The patient's obsessional preoccupation with his war experiences was also in significant part determined by unconscious wishes to repeat the infantile experience it represented. It is suggested that the repression of pleasure according to the classic psychoanalytic model is as important a dynamic in the dreams and symptoms associated with specific traumata as with any other neuroses. The question is raised as to whether a repetition compulsion, of normal or pathological intensity, may reflect the wish to repeat a descriptively unconscious pleasurable component of a disturbing experience, as well as to master it.

Adult↗