Xander’s Reviews > Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings > Status Update

IV
how does ego & id connect to BtPP?

sex drive seems to be all-present; death drive absent. this leads to misunderstanding

guided by pleas. principle (i.e. awareness of unpleasure) id defends itself against tensions arising from the sexdrive by:
- meeting the demands of the libido asap to give gratification (separating soma&germ in sex act = death
- let the ego subliminate parts of the libido for its own purposes

III
seperate level within ego: super-ego, origin: Oedipus-complex

1 process of converting object-choice (1 parent) into ego-alteration, Oedipus-complex leaves imprint on ego

2. 2 identifications (p&m), harmonized with one another
3. same time: reaction-formation against objects of identification (p&m) (em. ambivalence!)

4. 2+3= ego-alteration, which opposes rest of ego as super-ego

5. phylogenesis (social feel.)

II
Pcpt-Cs is gateway to Pcs (i.e. all internal & external stimuli have to be perceived, enter pre-conscious, and then constitute the Ego)

To be perceived, stimuli need to be remembered (word notions)
- all knowledge comes from without
- thoughts are perceived as originating outside

The Id is leftover Ucs, including repressed ideas

ego = projection of a surface (!) (e.g. self-criticism + guilt in Ucs -> neurosis)

I
descriptive distinction conscious/unconscious falls short (after psychoanal. inv.)

dynamic theory of psyche: unconscious to be further divided
- part of ego is non-repressed unconscious
- latent unconscious is preconscious (able to become conscious by activation)
- repressed ideas are unconscious (forced to be unconscious)

hence: unconscious loses some of its significance (multivalent quality)

finished Beyond the Pleasure Principle

The Ego & the Id as corollary to BtPP.

V
just like invasive ext. stimuli (energies) have to be annexed by PcptCs, so do internal drives.

Compulsions (to repeat, cf infants, neurotics) are such phenomena.

Connection between drives & compulsions: a powerful conservative tendency to restore a prior state -> goal of life is death (on own terms, hence survival instincts!)

germ cells (sex) work conservative in their own way, hence: death drive vs. sex drive

IV
Spec theory:

PcptCs-syst is located at prot. barrier, sep. psyche from environment. External excitations hindered from entering psyche; internal drives are contained within.

When external excitations stimulate a particular point, sometimes quantum of energy is too much -> when 'inside' the psyche devotes energy to control the stimulus. If not possible (because not anticipated) -> trauma -> dream's goal: control

III

Within the pyshce is a 'compulsion to repeat', which is more primal than and independent of (!) the 'pleasure principle'.

cf. children's play (and tragedies), dreams of traumatized patients, etc.

the ego represses (pleasure principle) and offers resistance, but the repressed ideas want to express themselves (what is this motive force???)

BtPP

I
sources of unpleasure:
a. displacement of pleasure princ. by reality princ.
b. repression of drives by psychic apparatus
c. psyche's response to external dangers

II
trauma neurosis caused by fright
childrens play: unpleasure imitated - pleasure! (same w/ adults: tragedy)

goal: look beyond the pleasure principle to explain more primal tendencies