Auden on Freud

After reading about all those French psychiatrists I feel a definite need to reinstall some Auden as a way of grounding myself with respect to psychology. I came across these comments made in the 1930's or 40's, I believe as part of a newspaper column he wrote under the name 'Didymus.'

Pleasure. The error of Freud and most psychologists is making pleasure a negative thing, progress towards a state of rest. This is only one half of pleasure and the least important half. Creative pleasure is, like pain, an increase in tension. What does the psychologist make of contemplation and joy?

The essence of creation is doing things for no reason; it is pointless. Possessive pleasure is always rational. Freud really believes that pleasure in immoral, i.e., happiness is displeasing to God.

If you believe this, of course, the death-wish becomes the most important emotion, and the 'reinstatement of the earlier condition'. Entropy is another name for despair.

Whatever his pronouncements may have sometimes lacked in fine distinctions, their force is extremely compelling and their general effect sobering. It's as if he is constantly saying, "Let us be sane now."