Meanings
- human sciencesThe principle that human decisions and behavior are strongly motivated by the instinctual desire of the id, arising in infancy, to experience pleasure and avoid pain.
They can’t seem to decide if the moral imperative is more crucial than the pleasure principle, or the other way around.
2008 March 16, Claire Dederer, "Brownstoners" (book review of The Future of Love by Shirley Abbott), New York Times (retrieved 4 July 2015)3 more examples
Bork warns that America is in the grip of a radical individualism that recognizes no limit to the right of personal gratification, one for which the pleasure principle is the only principle that counts.
December 28 1998, Richard Lacayo, "Where The Right Went Wrong," Time (retrieved 4 July 2015)Health, too, was a consideration, though it was very much pleasure-principle health—the right to wring out every last throb of ecstasy from one's knackered organs.
2002 January 26, Howard Jacobson, “A vision that took me back to adolescence, and a lot of American women to childhood”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 04 Jul 2015The pleasure principle is, on the whole, a sound one, then: having what you like is fine so long as you don't have too much of it in one go.
2009 January 3, Blake Morrison, “A little of what you fancy”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 04 Jul 2015
Synonyms & antonyms
noun(psychoanalysis) the governing principle of the id; the principle that an infant seeks gratification and fails to distinguish fantasy from reality
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 快樂原則 /快乐原则
- 快樂原則 /快乐原则 (kuàilè yuánzé)principle that human decisions are motivated by desire
Finnish mielihyväperiaate
- mielihyväperiaateprinciple that human decisions are motivated by desire
French principe de plaisir
- principe de plaisirprinciple that human decisions are motivated by desire
German Lustprinzip
- Lustprinzipprinciple that human decisions are motivated by desire
Greek αρχή της ευχαρίστησης
- αρχή της ευχαρίστησης (archí tis efcharístisis)principle that human decisions are motivated by desire
Hungarian örömelv
- örömelvprinciple that human decisions are motivated by desire
Japanese 快楽原則
- 快楽原則 (kairaku gensoku)principle that human decisions are motivated by desire
Turkish haz ilkesi
- haz ilkesiprinciple that human decisions are motivated by desire
Cite this entry
pleasure principle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleasure%20principle
“pleasure principle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleasure%20principle. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pleasure principle,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pleasure%20principle.
Source: pleasure principle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.