Freud on Happiness Essay - 1390 Words

Varea Romanenco FLAN 257 November 24, 2007 Sr. Elena Arminio Freud on Happiness The everlasting question of What is Happiness? has been inquired since the creation of men. Unfortunately, the only agreed answer that humanity came up with is that all the creatures seek happiness, but no one has the concrete directions for achieving it. Our libraries are overwhelmed with books about happiness, but no dictionary definition explains which path men must take to be happy. No mathematician gave us the axiom which we could use to solve the problem of living in bliss. No scientist brought up the formula of fusing certain ingredients to produce the drink of happiness. Still almost all the people consider that their ultimate purport in†¦show more content†¦To say it better would be to cite the words of Freud, himself: What we call happiness, in the strictest sense, comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree (Freud 254). Freud proposes the Principle of Satisfaction when aiming to be happy, in other words a problem of satisfying a persons instinctual wishes (Freud 263). Consequently, he concludes that because our appetite can never be fulfilled, the attainment of happiness will be nothing else than pessimistic. Also, he notes, that not all pleasures or wishes can be satisfied as soon as they are conceived. Freud presents the example of a baby, who, initially, believes that all his/her wishes should be gratified, and only later learns, form the Reality Principle, the harsh truth, that the wishes can not be satisfied instantaneously. More than that, life teaches men that in order to experience happiness one must sacrifice the instant gratification of his/her desires in order to achieve happiness in future. A simple example would be when a businessman decides to work overtime in order to receive more money and, thus, receive more pleasure, of course temporary and in future. So, Freud speculates on the conjecture that our universe or our world was created in such a way, that we are not be able to live happily for a prolonged time (Farrell 11). He introduces the Principle of Reality, the negative way of achieving happiness, when man strives to avoidShow MoreRelatedSigmund Freud : Civilization And Its Discontents1682 Words   |  7 PagesSigmund Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents In the book Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud writes about how civilization is a place of conflict when it comes to the need for conformity. Civilization is a place that does not function orderly despite having laws and regulations put in place. People often face the challenge in conforming to the restrictions in their daily lives when it comes to satisfying their needs. 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