Pleasure
Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria. The early psychological account of pleasure, the pleasure principle, describes it as a positive feedback mechanism, motivating the organism to recreate in the future the situation which it has just found pleasurable and to avoid situations that have caused pain in the past.[1]
The experience of pleasure is subjective and different individuals will experience different kinds and amounts of pleasure in the same situation. Many pleasurable experiences are associated with satisfying basic biological drives, such as eating, exercise, hygiene, sex or defecation. Other pleasurable experiences are associated with social experiences and social drives, such as the experiences of accomplishment, recognition, and service. The appreciation of cultural artifacts and activities such as art, music, dancing, and literature is often pleasurable.
Studies of the brain structures involved in the experience of pleasure suggest that there are two distinct kinds of pleasure: liking and wanting.[2]
Neurobiology
The pleasure center is the set of brain structures, predominantly the nucleus accumbens, theorized to produce great pleasure when stimulated electrically. Some references state that the septum pellucidium is generally considered to be the pleasure center,[3] while others mention the hypothalamus when referring to the pleasure center for intracranial stimulation. the experience of pleasure that can also be consciously reported has been linked to activation in the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, while activity in different brain regions, such as the nucleus accumbens, is associated with pleasure unconsciously expressed.[4]
In recent years, the brain mechanisms underlying pleasure have been described in more detail, at least in rats.[5] One particularly active research group around Kent C. Berridge has shown that pleasure is not a unitary experience. Rather, pleasure consists of multiple brain processes including liking, wanting and learning subserved by distinct yet partially overlapping brain networks.[2] In particular, this research has been helped by the use of objective pleasure-elicited reactions in humans and other animals such as the behavioral ‘liking’/‘disliking’ facial expressions to tastes that are homologous between humans and many other mammals.[6]
Recreational drug use can be pleasurable: some drugs, illicit and otherwise, directly create euphoria in the human brain when ingested. The mind's natural tendency to seek out more of this feeling (as described by the pleasure principle) can lead to dependence and addiction. Berridge and Robinson have proposed that addiction results from drugs hijacking the ‘wanting’ system through a sensitization of the mesolimbic dopamine system.[7][8]
Certain chemicals are known to stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. [citation needed] It has been suggested that physical exertion can release endorphins in what is called the runner's high, and equally it has been found that chocolate and certain spices, such as from the family of the chilli, can release or cause to be released similar psychoactive chemicals to those released during sexual acts.[citation needed]
Psychology
Pleasure is considered to be one of the core dimensions of emotion. It can be described as the positive evaluation that forms the basis for several more elaborate evaluations such as "agreeable" or "nice". As such, pleasure is an affect and not an emotion, as it forms one component of several different emotions.[9]
Pleasure is sometimes subdivided into fundamental pleasures that are closely related to survival (food, sex, and social belonging) and higher-order pleasures (e.g., art, money, and altruism).[10]
Pleasure is often regarded as a bipolar construct, meaning that the two ends of the spectrum from pleasant to unpleasant are mutually exclusive. This view is e.g. inherent in the circumplex model of affect.[11] Yet, some lines of research suggest that people do experience pleasant and unpleasant feelings at the same time, giving rise to so-called mixed feelings.[12][13][14]
The degree to which something or someone is experienced as pleasurable not only depends on its objective attributes (appearance, sound, taste, texture, etc.), but on beliefs about its history, about the circumstances of its creation, about its rarity, fame, or price, and on other non-intrinsic attributes, such as the social status or identity it conveys. For example, a sweater that has been worn by a celebrity will be more desired than an otherwise identical sweater that has not, though considerably less so if it has been washed.[15] Another example was when Grammy-winning, internationally acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell played in the Washington D.C. subway for 43 minutes, attracting little attention from the 1,097 people who passed by, and earning about $59 in tips.[15][16][17] Paul Bloom describes these phenomena as arising from a form of essentialism.
Some people find things pleasurable which have adverse objective attributes, such as horror films and spicy food.
Philosophical views
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Epicurus and his followers defined the highest pleasure as the absence of suffering[18] and pleasure itself as "freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul".[19] According to Cicero (or rather his character Torquatus) Epicurus also believed that pleasure was the chief good and pain the chief evil.[20]
In the 12th century Razi's "Treatise of the Self and the Spirit" (Kitab al Nafs Wa’l Ruh) analyzed different types of pleasure, sensuous and intellectual, and explained their relations with one another. He concludes that human needs and desires are endless, and "their satisfaction is by definition impossible."[21]
The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer understood pleasure as a negative sensation, one that negates the usual existential condition of suffering.[22]
Philosophies of pleasure
Utilitarianism and Hedonism are philosophies that advocate increasing to the maximum the amount of pleasure and minimizing the amount of suffering.
As a uniquely human experience
There has been debate as to whether pleasure is experienced by other animals rather than being an exclusive property of humankind. Jeremy Bentham (usually regarded as the founder of Utilitarianism)[23] and Beth Dixon[24] both argue that animals do experience pleasure — the latter, however, in a carefully worded manner. People who believe in human exceptionalism might argue that it is a form of anthropomorphism to ascribe any human experience to animals, including pleasure. Others view animal behaviour simply as responses to stimuli; this is the way behaviourists look at the evidence, Pavlov's dogs (or rather his explanation of their behaviour) being the best-known example. However, it may be argued that we simply cannot know whether animals experience pleasure, and most scientists, indeed, prefer to remain neutral while using anthropomorphisms when needed.[25] It appears, though, that those who recognise emotions in other animals are in the ascent: many ethologists, for example Marc Bekoff, are prepared to draw the conclusion that animals do experience emotions, though these are not necessarily the same as human emotions.[26]
See also
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References
- ^ Freud, Siegmund (1950). Beyond the pleasure principle. New York: Liveright.
- ^ a b Berridge, K.C., Kringelbach, M.L. (2008) Affective neuroscience of pleasure: Reward in humans and other animals. Psychopharmacology 199, 457–80.
- ^ Walsh, Anthony (1991). The Science of Love – Understanding Love and its Effects on Mind and Body. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-648-9.
- ^ Kringelbach, Morten L.; Berridge, Kent C. (2010). "The Neuroscience of Happiness and Pleasure". Soc Res.
- ^ Kringelbach, M.L; K.C. Berridge (2010). Pleasures of the brain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-533102-8.
- ^ "Kent Berridge Biopsychology Lab: Action Syntax & Neuroethology Research". umich.edu.
- ^ Robinson, T.E., Berridge, K.C. 1993 "The neural basis of drug craving: an incentive-sensitization theory of addiction". Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 18(3):247-91.
- ^ Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM. Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York (2000). ISBN 0-8385-7701-6
- ^ Frijda, Nico F. (2010). "On the Nature and Function of Pleasure". In Kringelbach, Morten L.; Berridge, Kent C. (eds.). Pleasures of the Brain. Oxford University Press. p. 99.
- ^ Kringelbach, Morten L. (2008-10-15). The Pleasure Center : Trust Your Animal Instincts: Trust Your Animal Instincts. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780199717392.
- ^ Posner, Jonathan; Russell, James A.; Peterson, Bradley S. (2005-09-01). "The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology". Development and Psychopathology. null (03): 715–734. doi:10.1017/S0954579405050340. ISSN 1469-2198. PMC 2367156. PMID 16262989.
- ^ Schimmack, Ulrich (2001-01-01). "Pleasure, displeasure, and mixed feelings: Are semantic opposites mutually exclusive?". Cognition and Emotion. 15 (1): 81–97. doi:10.1080/02699930126097. ISSN 0269-9931.
- ^ Schimmack, Ulrich (2005-08-01). "Response latencies of pleasure and displeasure ratings: Further evidence for mixed feelings". Cognition and Emotion. 19 (5): 671–691. doi:10.1080/02699930541000020. ISSN 0269-9931.
- ^ Kron, Assaf; Goldstein, Ariel; Lee, Daniel Hyuk-Joon; Gardhouse, Katherine; Anderson, Adam Keith (2013-08-01). "How Are You Feeling? Revisiting the Quantification of Emotional Qualia". Psychological Science. 24 (8): 1503–1511. doi:10.1177/0956797613475456. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 23824581.
- ^ a b Paul Bloom. How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (2010) 280 pages. Draws on neuroscience, philosophy, child-development research, and behavioral economics in a study of our desires, attractions, and tastes.
- ^ "A Concert Violinist on the Metro?". NPR.org. 11 April 2007.
- ^ "Pearls Before Breakfast: Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out". Washington Post.
- ^ The Forty Principal Doctrines, Number III.
- ^ Letter to Menoeceus, Section 131-2.
- ^ About the Ends of Goods and Evils, Book I, From Section IX, Torquatus sets out his understanding of Epicurus's philosophy.
- ^ Haque, Amber (2004). "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists". Journal of Religion and Health. 43 (4): 357–377 [371]. doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z.
- ^ Counsels and Maxims, Chapter 1, General Rules Section 1.
- ^ Bentham, Jeremy (1996). An Introduction to the Principles of Moral Legislation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820516-6.
- ^ Ethics & the Environment, Volume 6, Number 2, Autumn 2001, pp. 22–30, Indiana University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, see also: Emotion in animals
- ^ Horowitz A. 2007. Anthropomorphism., In M. Bekoff, ed., Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, pp 60–66, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT.
- ^ Do animals have emotions?, From The Sunday Times, August 24, 2008.
Further reading
- Bloom, Paul (2010). How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393340006. Draws on neuroscience, philosophy, child-development research, and behavioral economics in a study of our desires, attractions, and tastes.
- M.L. Kringelbach. The pleasure center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (2009). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532285-9. An general overview of the neuroscience of pleasure.
