ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a form of pleasure that Cecil Jose Rezze named authentic pleasure, which is distinct from pleasure as usually discussed in psychoanalysis. Pleasure is a concept that ranges from satisfaction of the senses to satisfaction of the spirit, such as aesthetical or ethical pleasure. The concept authentic pleasure emerged from experiences with clients and followed a necessity of the authors to contain and develop these experiences in the psychoanalytical work. In the psychoanalytic literature, a reference to authentic pleasure would be Wilfred Bion’s “A Theory of Thinking”. In this theory, Bion highlights satisfaction and proposes that conceptions emerge as a result of the encounter of pre-conceptions with their realizations. Authentic pleasure and passionate love also represent experiences of being in unison with reality. Authentic pleasure emerges as an essential element to mental growth, both in the dimension of knowledge, as well as in the dimension of being in unison with reality.
