Abstract

For Freud, the pleasure principle is a fundamental principle of the psychische Geschehen, holding the same import as the reality principle. Properly speaking, the pleasure principle is the principle par excellence of the psychic processes, for without it, it would not be necessary to promote the recognition of reality to the status of a "principle." [...] it is given in a totally different way, as that principle immediately familiar to everyone, which is designated by the word will. It is easy to understand why this conception of a double experience of the body as will and as representation constitutes a crucial pivotal point in Schopenhauer's metaphysical system.