Views on Freud: Civilization and its Discontents Chapter 1 Part 5

Freud – “A further incentive to a disengagement of the ego from the general mass of sensation – that is, to the recognition of an ‘outside’, an external world – is provided by the frequent, manifold and unavoidable sensations of pain and pleasure principle, in the exercise of its unrestrictive domination.”

Freud does not explain why we separate our ego from the external world.

That is because in our subconscious we are aware of the meaning of pain. Pain itself is a good thing, without it our body would disintegrate without our knowing why. Pain is a feedback system which alerts us of harmful occurrences in our body’s, and since these occurrences happen at the same time as the sensations of pain we associate the pain with something harmful.

 “A tendency arises to separate from the ego everything that can become a source of such unpleasure, to throw it outside and to create a pure pleasure-ego…”

Again, pain is the representative of a situation which hurts our existence, our ability to be, and since our objective is to sustain the status quo of our existence we must rid of such experiences.

“The boundaries of this primitive pleasure-ego cannot escape rectification through experience.”

Based on what can he prove his claims? What about masochists? There association to pain through experience is different and therefore there pain-ego relationship is different.

“Some of the things that one is unwilling to give up, because they give pleasure are nevertheless not ego but object; and some sufferings that one seeks to expel turn out to be inseparable from the ego in virtue of their internal origin.”

The first part can be explained as all experiences; we cling to that we are aware that provides a better existence, the second part is a bit more complex yet beautiful in structure; during our experiences we might learn of a situation which will cause us pain yet on a different level will cause us pleasure. This internal paradox is the source of the ego’s pain.

“One comes to learn a procedure by which, through a deliberate direction of one’s sensory activities and through suitable muscular action, one can differentiate between what is internal- what belongs to the ego – and what is external – what emanates from the outer world.”

There doesn’t have to be necessarily a body to part of the ego, the ego rather compromises of all objects and ideas controlled by the ego. So essentially, the movement of the muscles or ability to sense is a proof or rather a reflection of the ego’s control.

“In this way one makes the first step towards the introduction of the reality principle which is to dominate future development” – Or simply the egos awareness of its scope of power.