Pleasure principle

1. When we want something very much, we usually destroy it…
2. This ‘pleasure paradox,’ or paradox of hedonism, preoccupied philosophers such as Henry Sidgwick, who noted that pleasure cannot be acquired directly.
3. We often fail to attain pleasures if we deliberately seek them. John Stuart Mill said that happiness is only attained by not making it the direct end, so that happy are only those who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness. [1]
4. On the other hand, the pleasure principle is a psychoanalytic concept originated by Freud, and states that people seek pleasure and avoid pain. The counterpart is the reality principle, which defers gratification when necessary. [2]
5. In Surrealism pleasure is the ultimate purpose of the artist, or generally of the human being, in order to reach excellence. The symbolic representation of the object of pleasure, thus its indirect acquisition, protects the object from being used.
6. I suppose this sort of joyful enlightenment is depicted in the painting. The head of the person is similar to the light bulb depicted in cartoons when one has a great idea about something. But here the bulb is identified with the head of the person who had the idea.
7. The person depicted in the painting is Edward James, a sponsor of Surrealism who had bought many surrealist paintings. In the particular case, Edward James simply enjoys one of the paintings which he had bought.
8. But at the same time I believe the painter has tricked his buyer, or any other person viewing the painting, because the face hidden in the painting could belong to any one. It seems that what the painter has really painted is a portrait of himself.
9. Such an assumption is also supported by the costume which the painter used to wear. The tie is somewhat hypocritical whatsoever, because we usually expect from well- dressed people to be also well-behaved.
10. But the person in the painting has no good intention at all. In fact his is ready to masturbate. While his left hand is hiding under the table, his right hand is trying to reach the ‘pumice stone’ on the table, which apparently is the object of pleasure.
11. However the indirect suggestion of the painter’s erotic mood, as well as the indefinite depiction of the object of pleasure, transmute a common sexual fantasy into a work of art.
12. The person in the painting seems to be enjoying the implicate erotic elements of the painting so much that he has reached Enlightenment, as his head is shining like a light bulb.
13. This artistic method of approaching Pleasure as an Idea, is in accordance with the initial statements about the paradox of pleasure, or its meaning.
14. On one hand, we cannot have direct pleasure, because by spending a lot of effort or paying too much attention we destroy the object or subject of concern. Thus the pleasure paradox.
15. One the other hand, even if we think that we have obtained the desired object, fulfilling thus the pleasure principle, pleasure itself remains an idea, an indefinite and intangible object in our mind.
16. Therefore he had better let ourselves free to enjoy the everlasting search for the object of pleasure, or for pleasure as an idea, instead of regretting that we don’t have it, or even denying that it exists.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_hedonism]

[2]: [http://onesurrealistaday.com/post/354600685/the-pleasure-principle-portrait-of-edward-james]

7/31/2018

Painting: The Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James), Rene Magritte.