Response Paper 2

Aferdita Bogdanovic
In Chapter 2 of “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”, Freud expresses the theory through an 18-month-old child and his actions. The game was known as “fort-da”, also known as the game of “disappearance and return”. The child repeatedly throws a wooden reel tied with a string around it over his crib. Freud related this game to that of his mother leaving and returning whenever he would throw the toy unattached. This is the pleasure and pain theory. When the 18-month-old child would throw the toy over the crib, it resembles his mom leaving which is a painful experience. However, when the child would retrieve his toy, it showed that his mom returned which was a pleasurable experience. By the toy having a string attached to it, it shows Freud’s pleasure and pain theory. This game relates to the ideas of Freud because it shows that people seek pleasure and avoid pain. In doing this they take control of the situation.
Freud’s Pleasure and Pain theory is comparable to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” because they both have to face reality in one-way or another. The 18 month old, realizes that his mother is not always going to be around for him to experience pleasure. He also realized that with pleasure comes pain. The men in the cave realized that their imagination of life outside the cave wasn’t what they expected. He experienced life outside of what he was used to. The man who went outside the cave was upset because his expectations werent met, but at the same time experienced pleasure because he was seeing life outside of what he was used to.