The pleasure principle explains that individuals are primarily motivated by the desire for pleasure while avoiding the pain.

People always seek gratification of their needs. Also, they do not want to withstand any such experience that can create discomfort or pain of any sort. That is why, individuals are instinctively driven by the desire for pleasure and try to avoid uncomfortable or painful situations.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, believed that individuals are fundamentally driven by this principle throughout their whole life.

According to Freudian psychoanalysis, the purpose of the instinctive seeking of pleasure and avoiding of pain is to satisfy biological and psychological needs. To Freud, the pleasure principle is the animating force behind the 'id' (the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories).