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By way of paying homage to Freud, Dr. Lechat draws a parallel between Freud and Epicurus, separated by twenty-two centuries and yet in many ways strikingly related to one another. Freud considered the pleasure principle an essential factor of psychic balance, with the reality principle acting as counterweight. Freudian morality results from the interplay of these two principles. Epicurus's philosophy is condensed in his formula: avoid pain and seek happiness, which consists of not suffering mental or physical pain. This can be achieved by observance of four moderating precepts: 1, take only those pleasures that will not be followed by pain; 2, avoid efforts that will not be crowned by pleasure; 3, avoid any pleasure that might deprive you of a greater pleasure; 4, accept pain that may free you from greater pain or that will be followed by great pleasure. These rules may be regarded as the conditioning that a well-constituted superego would develop: if the superego exacts or forbids too much, a neurosis exists; if the superego demands too little, we have a perversion.
Dr. Lechat believes that both Freud and Epicurus met with the same incomprehension by the multitudes; they might say to one another: 'We have both entered into History, and there we shall remain as brothers because we have contemplated the same truths and dared to proclaim them.'