Happiness - The Key To Well-Being

 

Pleasure is simply a subjective feeling that all humans and other animals seek, either pleasurable, pleasant, worthy of being sought or enjoyable. It can also be part of other emotional states like joy, happiness, amusement, anticipation, ecstasy and intimacy. We can choose to experience pleasure depending on our moods and the circumstances.

According to the following five attitude theories, pleasure is a quality shared by the conscious self and the unconscious self. These are individualism, Ego-style, the desire for the object of desire, Ego dissimilarity, and hedonic reciprocity. According to the first two attitude theories, pleasure is a quality shared by the self, an entity separate from the person, and the object of desire. For the object of desire, it is a quality shared by the person and the object of desire, which we get by means of hedonic experience. According to the third attitude theory pleasure is the quality common to both the person and the object.

According to these dispositional theories pleasure is a psychological disposition that differs between persons, as the result of an inner structure of the person. Pleasure can be highly positive (in the case of Ego) or very negative (in the case of the other attitude types - the Ego-style and the desire for the object of desire). It has a strong affect on motivation and can affect individuals even in the most remote ways. Pleasure can influence other people to behave in a certain way, to pursue a certain goal, to feel pleasure, anger, sorrow or any other type of emotional state. It has a universal influence on how people feel and on the choices they make.

Pleasures can be divided into three: the physical pleasure we experience through normal senses: smell, touch, and taste; the emotional pleasure we experience through our emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, love, fear, and so on; and the mental pleasure we experience through thinking: thinking gives pleasure, so pleasure is also a type of mental quality theory. The first two are more important than the others. The outer world, the objects of desire, and even ourselves are, of course, only parts of this great pleasure. The first two get pleasure from without while thought and so become important only in relation to pleasure. Mental pleasure is therefore the basic quality of living.

A well designed hedonic response system can provide a structure for a happy and healthy life. This will involve four basic elements: pleasure, the pleasure we experience when enjoying our relationships, the reward for our good hedonic responses, and the structure of the mind necessary for pleasure to occur. Together these elements make up the four main elements of happiness. We can then integrate all the elements - pleasure, the reward for our good hedonic responses, the structure of the mind that pleasure can generate, and the emotions that go with pleasure - to create and maintain a happy and healthy life.

In all its dimensions pleasure is the central focus of happiness. Pleasure can motivate us to work hard to achieve our objectives. Pleasure can also inspire us to greatness. And pleasure itself can motivate and inspire us to do great things. If pleasure is the key to happiness then we can be sure that the more pleasurable our lives are, the more we will enjoy life and live well-being.