The pleasure principle is itself affectless and unreflexive, so pleasure is not an emotion

Evidence

Notwithstanding, it should be clear that the pleasure principle does not give itself pleasure in this sense that it does not affect itself. The mechanism of the pleasure principle remains inaccessible and insensitive to that of which it is the principle. This is why Damasio can uphold the strange affirmation that “pleasure is not an emotion.” Emotion is a reflexive structure through which vital regulation affects itself. … “The status of life regulation is expressed in the form of affects.” — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 900

Categorization

• XREF: This discriminates the Freudian pleasure principle from reflexive affective regulation — a pivotal distinction in the Malabou-vs-psychoanalysis debate. — connects to: Sadomasochism entails enjoyment, so a sadomasochist cannot also be repressed — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 162; The harshness effect is not mediated by self-reported mood. — Travis Proulx, Steven J. Heine, and Kathleen D. Vohs, When Is the Unfamiliar the Uncanny?…, 57
• QUESTION: How does pleasure’s non-emotional status bear on the drive theory’s relation to primal masochism and destructive plasticity later?