Emboldened by a degree in Psychology (BA, Dunelm, 1976) I have been musing on the Pleasure Principle coined by Sigmund Freud.
My behaviour is often irrational. Freud postulates my id drives me to seek instant gratification – the Pleasure Principle, so aptly called das Lustprinzip in German. Let’s get sex out of the way. An enjoyable activity, one that can be completed in the same time it takes to listen to The Archers and I don’t mean the Sunday omnibus; a bit of a Sigmund obsession.
I postulate that postponed gratification is enjoyable; possibly more so than the eventual gratification. Cleanly killing a high driven snipe or that exciting urgent tug when a salmon has taken a fly can both be categorised as delayed gratification, sometimes delayed for an inordinately long time. Richard Strauss and Wagner deliver delayed operatic pleasure, if I can stay awake long enough.
Where Sigmund scores is all these pleasurable activities are inessential. They are not dead-heading the roses or putting out the bins. However, many of us willingly pay for pleasure that is economically unjustifiable; a bottle of good wine for a change from the house white, say.
It may be the kernel is nothing to do with the id, wherever that is, but what us economists (A Level, Grade D) call the bank balance. Allocation of disposable assets interests me. The choices are bewildering but just walk out the door and they are visible. Home improvement or holiday, Honda or Hispano-Suiza, pension contribution or Pomerol … I suggest we all, unconsciously, make nuanced, often illogical, choices. So perhaps the id is in charge and we are puppets on a string?
Have you read ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman? Examines fast intuitive choices and slow logical choices. Some surprising conclusions.
No but I have ordered a copy.