Jonah Bossewitch	PSY 365/HUM 365

October 26, 1995	Professor Sugarman

MIDTERM EXERCISE

I. Identifications

1. The pleasure principle - Also known as the pleasure-pain (unpleasure) principle, Freud initially believed that this principal was the sole determinant of mental life. All instincts governed by the pleasure principle seek to increase pleasure and eliminate pain. Another way of stating this is that the pleasure principle tries to reduce the amount of tension/excitation, and keep it as low as possible. In his pivotal work Beyond the Pleasure Principal Freud argues that the pleasure principle is not the only tendency mental life. Freud considered the pleasure principle to be a primary process and in his later thinking seated in the id.

2. The reality principle - First introduced in the article 'Formulations on the Two principles of Mental Functioning' the reality principle develops out of the need to differentiate between the subjective and the objective. Despite the fact that the reality principle aims to postpone the discharge of tension, it is still in the service of the pleasure principle. Freud characterized the reality principle as a secondary process and later seated it in the ego.

3. Constancy principle - Also called the stability principle, this principle refers to the universal tendency of living matter to remain constant. The pleasure principle is actually an application of this more general rule, although it was the pleasure principle that prompted Freud to infer the constancy principle.

4. Repetition compulsion - The neurotic symptom that forced Freud to consider other basic tendencies besides for the pleasure principle. He found this compulsion at the root of certain child's games and traumatic neurosis (war dreams). It eventually caused Freud to redefine an instinct as "an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things". (Beyond the Pleasure Principle, p. 43)

5. Death instinct - In Beyond the Pleasure Principle Freud postulates this instinct that competes with the pleasure principle. The death instinct is the tendency of living organisms to revert to inorganic matter and it is an extrapolation of the tendency to revert to an earlier state. It is the origin of the repetition compulsion, Sado-masochism, and aggression, among others. It has no energy of its own and it must be powered by libidinal reserves.

6. Eros instinct -Also known as the Life instincts, the Sexual instincts, and the Libidinal instincts, this instinct opposes the tendencies of the Death instinct. The Eros is powered by sexual energy (libido) and always seeks to prolong life and to create new life. The Life and Death instincts never appear in isolated forms, so it is often difficult to determine their contribution to an event. The Death instinct "resides" in the superego, while the Life instincts home is the ego.

II. Essays

1)	Throughout his life Freud conceived of our mental lives as deterministic processes dictated by internal and external stimuli. These deterministic processes are anything but simple and they caused Freud to hypothesize highly complex instinctual dynamics. In order for Freud to specify these processes he needed to postulate a domain for them to operate in. He develops and tests these ideas on the neurotic symptoms of his patients. While the details of this structure varied over time, the underlying principle of instincts ruling our lives and obeying fixed laws remained unchanged.

After significant development, Freud's conception of mental life looked like this: Two primary instincts are locked in constant struggle over the fate of the organism. The Eros or the life instinct is fighting to insure the continued survival of the organism and to insure the propagation of life in the form of offspring. The Death instinct is simultaneously fighting to return the organism to its original inorganic state in a specific manner. This battle is taking place in a well defined arena that Freud has separated into the id, the ego, and the superego. Freud specifies various rules that govern the transformations of these instincts within this arena and their expression in the organism.

Even though Freud calls the ego the seat of the 'I', the I seems to be a passive observer of its own life. Complexities surrounding the issue of free will aside, Freud's characterization seems vacuous without a role for volition, intentionality, and rationally based decisions. Perhaps he intentionally (no paradox intended) cut the agent out of the scheme in an attempt to found his principles in science, and science had not yet made a place for the subjective. It would be nice if Freud would explain this move himself, (perhaps he does someplace that we have not read) but regardless of his motives I think because of this stance some people will find his theories intolerably incomplete.

2)	Freud postulates instincts that govern life as a whole, but what about life on a day to day basis. What drives people to get out of bed in the morning? What prevents them from rationally deciding that life is no longer worth living and overriding the Eros? (see above for comments on rationally based decisions) Does Freud's account of mental life explain the mental lives of relatively non-neurotic individuals?