The pleasure principle, according to Jacques Lacan, functions as a limit to enjoyment: it is the law that commands the subject to 'enjoy as little as possible'.
At the same time the subject constantly attempts to transgress the prohibitions imposed on his enjoyment, to go beyond the pleasure principle.
Yet the result of transgressing the pleasure principle, according to Lacan, is not more pleasure but pain, since there is only a certain amount of pleasure that the subject can bear.
Beyond this limit, pleasure becomes pain, and this 'painful principle' is what Lacan calls jouissance.
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Hmm... Death by pleasure.
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