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CLINICAL NOTES

Sigmund Freud (1911). ‘Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning,’ translated by James Strachey, edited by Angela Richards, On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis (London: Penguin Books, 1991), pp. 29-44.

These clinical notes summarize the main arguments in Freud’s paper of 1911 on the ‘two principles of mental functioning.’

This paper was translated into English in 1925.

The two principles that Freud is preoccupied with in the title are known as the ‘pleasure principle’ and the ‘reality principle’ in the analytic doctrine.

This paper is so lucid in its exposition of these two principles that it can be read not only by analysts who are interested in meta-psychology (i.e. the theory of psychoanalysis), but also by absolute beginners.

Freud begins by noting that the ‘purpose’ of every neurosis is to simply get the subject to withdraw from empirical ‘reality.’

The neurotic subject, to put it simply, lives in a world of his own.

Why does this happen?

It happens because neurotics are not able to cope with the demands of reality in everyday life. The reason for that should be obvious. It is related to the Freudian theory of repression.

Neurotics find that the better part of their attention span and energies are spent in maintaining what Freud terms ‘repression proper.’

That is because ‘primal repression’ in childhood is not a one-off event.

If it is too severe, then it over-corrects the problem of keeping thoughts incompatible with the ego out of the subject’s consciousness by subjecting it to primal repression.

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These thoughts however will surface to consciousness because of the ‘upward thrust’ of the unconscious unless repression proper is in place.

The cost factor in repression proper involves a huge amount of psychic expenditure on a daily basis.

Since neurotics are already committed to this huge expenditure on a daily basis, they do not have either the interest or the inclination to engage with external reality like everybody else.

That is why neurotic subjects come across as ‘absent-minded’ or ‘pre-occupied’ with their own thoughts. Brooding – especially in obsessionals - is the classic neurotic symptom.

This withdrawal from reality is characteristic of all forms of mental illness no matter how mild or severe. It includes both the neuroses and the psychoses.

An inevitable consequence of this libidinal withdrawal is a preoccupation with fantasy rather than with reality in the life of the neurotic subject.

The point that Freud makes is not that all forms of fantasy are bad or symptomatic of the inability to face reality in the neurotic subject.

It is more a question of what the neurotic subject ‘does’ with the fantasy.

Freud, for instance, commends artists and creative writers for how they use fantasy as raw material for their creative work as opposed to the common folk who prefer to just ‘day-dream’ and not act on their desire.

The artist is somebody who has ‘regressed from reality’ albeit in the service of the ego; but, if he is successful, he will find a way back to reality through his artistic creations.

In other words, the artist uses his talent to ‘sublimate his neurosis’ and is willing to act on his desire despite the risk factors involved in doing so.

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Those who lack the talent to sublimate a neurosis however are the sorts who use fantasies as a way of escaping reality rather than as a way of re-shaping reality in a form that is artistically or culturally acceptable.

That is why Freud is preoccupied with sublimation; the reason artists do not fall ill in the way that neurotics do is because they are able to sublimate their libido.

The term ‘artist’ is not necessarily reducible to artists, but encompasses anybody who can sublimate his neurosis in a creative fashion.

So it can include scientists as well.

In fact, neuroses are as wide-spread amongst scientists as artists but it is a well-kept secret since experimental work is empirical in character; this gives the impression that the scientist has a better hold on reality than artists do.

Most misunderstandings about the scope of psychoanalysis as a theory and as a practice stem from not understanding that Freud is not pushing for a society that encourages sex as its main libidinal outlet.

Freud is basically preoccupied with forms of sublimation and the role that education can play in teaching young people to sublimate more effectively.

The neurotic subject can then be described as somebody who is subject to the incessant conflict between the pleasure principle and the reality principle in the psyche without knowing how to resolve it like the normative subject is able to.

Freud however is not arguing that it is either necessary or possible to do away with the pleasure principle in the psyche since the function of the pleasure principle is to keep excitation at as low a level as possible. It is actually modelled on the homeostatic principle in physiology.

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Instead, the neurotic subject is taught to give up on the ‘momentary pleasures’ that activate the pleasure principle in order to obtain ‘an assured pleasure at a later time.’

This basically involves learning to make trade-offs like grown-ups do while making decisions.

That then is the basic argument in this paper which Freud describes as ‘preparatory’ rather than ‘expository’ because it was the earliest of the papers that would go on to constitute Freudian meta-psychology.

So Freud was, in a sense, trying to find his way into Freudian meta-psychology himself.

Needless to say, the main assumption in this paper is that the difference between the neurotic and the normative subject is one of degree rather than kind.

Freud also assumes that all subjects will go through neurotic phases in their life; learning to sublimate early on in life will therefore reduce the levels of suffering that that the neurotic will be subject to by the demands of reality in everyday life.

SHIVA KUMAR SRINIVASAN