Pleasure

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. In psychology, the pleasure principle describes pleasure as a positive feedback mechanism, motivating the organism to recreate in the future the situation which it has just found pleasurable. According to this theory, organisms are similarly motivated to avoid situations that have caused pain in the past.

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Famous quotes containing the word pleasure:

    “true pleasure
    Lives in measure,
    Which if men forsake,
    Blinded they into folly run and grief for pleasure take.”
    —Unknown. Love Winged My Hopes and Taught Me How to Fly (l. 3–6)

    “How like a winter hath my absence been
    From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
    What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen,
    What old December’s bareness everywhere!”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Whether outside work is done by choice or not, whether women seek their identity through work, whether women are searching for pleasure or survival through work, the integration of motherhood and the world of work is a source of ambivalence, struggle, and conflict for the great majority of women.”
    —Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)