In both readings, Daniel Gilbert and Sigmund Freud talk about memories. They both believe that memories trigger the sense of pleasure principle or happiness. I saw Freud referred to pleasure as overcoming pain. For example, Freud writes, “Now in the traumatic neuroses the dream life has the peculiarity: it continually takes the patient back to the situation of his disaster, from which he awakens in renewed terror (pg. 9).” These nightmares, or exaggerated memories, are repeated again in the patient’s mind so they can perfect the situation to the point where it does not affect the patient anymore, to which they can find pleasure from the painful memory. This relates to the “reality principle” where they postpone pleasure while they endure pain (pg 5).
Gilbert would have agreed to this to some degree. Gilbert believes that happiness lays in comparing and relating current experiences with past experiences, but the past is vague and never perfect in the memory. Both these philosophers acknowledge the importance of the past and the differences between people’s feeling but they built off it differently. Gilbert would disagree with Freud on how happiness is obtained. Gilbert states, “Once we have an experience, we are thereafter unable to see the world as we did before. (pg 57).” This counter’s Freud’s term because Freud implies that to get pleasured, we must overcome out pain while Gilbert upholds the idea that pleasure comes from referring back to past events. Gilbert would argue that with new experiences, comes new pleasures. It is pointless to go back to old memories and ponder about them until you have overcome them through perfection. Gilbert also states, “..but the likelihood is depressingly slim that we can resurrect our experience and then evaluate it as we should have back then (pg. 57)”. Holding on to the past is never accurate.
I would agree with Gilbert because holding bad experience and dwelling in it takes a lot more time to achieve the so called pleasure we strive for in our lives. Gilbert’s clarity on the subject that there are different experiences between people is key. Since we are different people, I believe that there will be different levels of happiness that people are in and they will always experience new things that will help them achieve happiness or pleasure. This is the fastest way people achieve it and if they were to be Freud’s concept of pleasure, patients will take a lot longer to get over the pain/depression state they are in. I also believe in Gilbert’s thought because genuinely, people seem happy most of the time and not really try to perfect a situation.
