Freud’s ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ is an essay exploring the life and death drives of man, and how we unconsciously strive for both pleasure and displeasure, attempting to make such pleasurable. In looking at these drives in relation to tragedy, Freud’s psychology on repetition in both children and lesser-so but still the case adults, often in forms of relationship, was extremely interesting. This was related to the sadistic drive of the tragic theatre, where audiences unconsciously take pleasure from watching tragedy unfold. The latter half on the inevitable death drive is also reciprocal in tragedy however this got a lot more confusing as it went on, and alike to my reading of ‘An Interpretation of Dreams’ and the Oedipus Complex I was really impressed by Freud’s theories, that is until they got too intelligent for me in sections V, VI and VII, focusing a lot on the biology and psychology of the brain as oppose to how I can apply repetition theory to literature. ‘Beyond the Principle of Pleasure’ was a very good essay, it just got a little confusing.
My rating is based on it being better than 'On Mourning and Melancholia', less stimulating than 'An Interpretation of Dreams', but still a very middle-ground text in terms of my enjoyment.