pleasure principle (Lustprinzip) According to Freud, Anna, all actions---conscious and unconscious---give rise to pleasure or its opposite unpleasure in the psychical apparatus. In the course of daily life we try to regulate our thoughts and actions so that we have more of the first and less of the second. It is for this reason known as an âeconomic modelâ of the psychical apparatus, where pleasure is regarded as an equivalent of money and unpleasure the equivalent of debt. It is also known as a constancy principle or nirvana principle because it is assumed that the subjectâs primary aim is to achieve a plateau which is just pleasurable enough. While Freud certainly has sensual pleasures in mind, pleasure does not necessarily have to take that form. The pleasure in question may also be an ego pleasure, i.e. the pleasure the ego obtains from gaining the superegoâs approval. By the same token, unpleasure takes the form of self-reproach, or more usually a kind of negative tension one experiences when a pleasure is delayed, i.e. it doesnât usually arise from having to do something one might find distasteful.