Dr. Sigmund Freud was the first to suggest that mental disorders need not be pertained from birth. A person’s childhood, experiences, all add up to the sanity of the mind. The basic idea of the pleasure principle is that we strive for that which makes us happy, and avoid things that give us pain. The reality principle is the understanding that in order to attain pleasure, a painful road may need be taken.
Sometimes, we need to feel the pain to experience pleasure, and vice versa. As the Fresh actress Leslie Caron so skillfully put it, “in order to have great happiness, you have to have great pain and unhappiness- otherwise, how would you know when you’re happy?”
Sigmund Freud highlights children’s perceptions and analyses their behavior. When I was a kindergarten teacher, I noticed many ways that children act out, Strange as it is, objects seemed to hold a different value than that on its own. Rather, one child would be beating up another just because they innocently happened to use one of their crayons did not necessarily mean that the angry child was an avid artist and extremely possessive about his materials which assist him in creating dinosaur and space cowboy masterpieces, but rather, they happen to be gifts from a parent they tend not to see much.
Jealousy was also a common characteristic, although subtle. Children are very sharp at that age (2.5-4 years old) and are very conscious of their surroundings and behaviour despite what we would like to believe. Little competitive exercises helped relax these impulses. However, a shiny lunchbox, or not being the first one to be picked to answer a question by the teacher, or being the last one to be picked up, are all social status factors for these little intelligent beings.
The pleasure principle does play in quite well when we consider the illustration of children. They do what they have to to get what they want, and the journey need not be painless. A cry for attention is a neurologic painful attempt to attain what they need.
When I was reading Freud’s observation of the infant, I was amazed as to how the child would throw his toys to believe that he is the one choosing to let them go, a method of coping with his mother’s abscence. I once had a child whose dog had died quite recently, and all he would do in class was draw a little blob which vaguely resembled a puppy, write the letters “D-G-O” beside it, and then tear up the paper into bits. The same theory can fall in. I didn’t understand at that time, but after reading Freud’s ideas, I guess it makes sense now. Amazing.
Mifta Mahmud Cornea