Emotions of pleasure

Loretta Stirm and her children waited patiently at the airfield at the Travis Air Force Base, while a group of military pilots departed the plane that brought them home to the United States. Since General Robert Stirm was the senior officer returning from a prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam, he first had to give a brief official speech and then allow his comrades to meet with their families. All this time, his family continued to wait. Press photographer Sal Weder, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this photograph, wrote: “When he finished speaking, he looked around and saw his family running towards him with open arms and smiles expressing violent joy.” ^[171] “Joy” is a better word than “pleasure” or “happiness” for the emotion shown in this snapshot, as it indicates a higher intensity of the emotion being experienced. However, it does not tell us exactly what emotions of pleasure were experienced by these people.
I am sure that there are more than a dozen emotions of pleasure, each of which is universal and each of which is as different from the others as sadness, anger, disgust, and contempt differ from each other. Just as there is a group of special emotions that usually do not give us pleasure, there is also a group of other special emotions that we experience when we enjoy. The problem with the use of the words "pleasure" and "happiness" is that they are not specific enough; they imply a single state of mind and feeling, just as the words “frustration” and “denial” do not allow one to know whether a person experiences sadness, anger, fear, or disgust. In English, there are no separate words for all the pleasant emotions that I described in this section, and therefore I borrowed some words from other languages ​​to indicate several important emotions of pleasure that we experience.
However, we still know little about the emotions of pleasure, since all studies of emotions, including mine, were aimed at studying emotions of grief. The attention of researchers focused on emotions when they caused problems for others and for ourselves. As a result, we know more about mental disorders than about mental health. Now the situation is beginning to change, as increasingly the focus is on what is called positive emotions. ^[172]
I am confident that we can benefit greatly from a better knowledge and understanding of pleasure emotions, since they play a key motivating role in many important areas of our life.
Let's start with sensory pleasures . There are things that we feel pleasant to the touch; we can also experience the pleasure of someone else's touch, especially when it comes from the one we care for, and is carried out with tenderness and affection. There are species that are pleasant to contemplate, such as a beautiful view of the sunset. There are sounds that are pleasant to hear, such as the splashing of ocean waves, the murmur of a stream, the sound of wind in the treetops and various musical melodies. When studying the emotions of disgust, we considered taste and smell separately, but most people like the sweet taste, while the ability to enjoy sour, bitter or spicy taste seems to be acquired over the years. The smell of rotting is considered unpleasant by most people, but some highly valued cheeses exude odors that seem disgusting to many. I believe that there are some universal themes and many learned variations for each of the five sensory pleasures.
It remains an open question whether sensory pleasures simply provide different ways to achieve the same emotional experience and therefore should be treated as a single emotion, or we should regard them as five different emotions — visual, tactile, olfactory, auditory and gustatory pleasures. Someday, researchers will resolve this issue and determine whether each of these sensory pleasures really differ in their subjective sensations, in the signals given to other people, and in their physiological changes. In the meantime, I will consider them as five different emotions, because my instinct tells me that the conducted research will show that they are different among themselves, and not only in terms of the sense organ used.
My mentor Silvan Tomkins did not consider sensory pleasures to be emotions. He argued that emotion can be triggered by almost anything, and each of these pleasures is associated with only one source of sensory sensations. This does not seem convincing to me, since inside any of the sensory sources, such as sound, for example, there are many different triggers. Although some of them are universal, many of them are not, as very different tastes, types, smells, touches and sounds cause pleasure both within the same culture and in different cultures.
Psychologists Barbara Fredrikson and Kristina Brennigen also argued that sensory pleasures should not be seen as emotions, but they also put forward other arguments. ^[173] They argued that sensory pleasures simply arise with us without the requirement of evaluation, and if there is no evaluation, then there is no emotion. However, I do not agree with this, since many emotions, traditionally perceived as negative, can be triggered by current events that cause sensory sensations. Does the automatic pleasure that most people experience at the sight of the sunset implies a smaller amount of evaluation than the automatic fear that most people experience when a chair breaks beneath them or when they suddenly notice a car approaching them when crossing the street? I do not think so. In addition, much of what gives us sensory pleasures through sight, hearing, taste, or smell, and to a lesser extent through touch, is assimilated triggers, which often require a variety of evaluations to be triggered. For example, the pleasure that we experience, looking at the abstract picture of Picasso, does not arise without evaluation processes. Sensory pleasures are very pleasant, and I see no reason not to treat them as emotions.
One of the simplest pleasant emotions is fun. Most of us have fun at finding something funny; There are very funny people who are ready to joke and have fun without getting tired. The entertainment industry is mainly concerned with trying to evoke this emotion in people and giving them the opportunity to have fun when they want it. Fun can vary in intensity from mild to very strong, accompanied by bouts of uncontrollable laughter and even tears. ^[174]
When everything in the world seems right to us, when we feel that we do not need to change anything, ^[175] then at such moments we are calm and contented with life. I am not sure that there is any sign of satisfaction appearing on the face; Perhaps, in such a state, we simply relax the muscles of the face. More likely, satisfaction can be heard in the voice. Later, I will explain how the differences in pleasurable emotions are manifested more in the voice than on the face.
Excitement arises in response to something new and unusual. Tomkins believed that arousal is the most intense form of expression of interest, but interest is in many ways a rational, not an emotional state. However, it seems certain that the initial interest may grow into excitement, especially when changes occur quickly or are difficult to respond to, unexpected or new. It’s not easy to define a universal trigger or a topic of arousal. All those that I thought about - skiing, watching shooting stars, probably causing horror in some people. I believe that there is often a close connection between arousal and fear, even if your fear has created a danger that threatens not someone else but you. Excitement has its own special “flavor” that distinguishes it from all other pleasant emotions. Excitement can also merge with anger, causing bouts of rage, or with fear, causing bouts of horror.
Relief , often accompanied by a deep inhalation and exhalation, is an emotion that we experience when something that gives us strong emotions weakens. We feel relieved when we learn that the test for the presence of cancer gave a negative result when we find our child who was lost for several minutes in the hustle of the store, when we find out that we have successfully passed a difficult exam that could well fail. Relief can also occur after positive feelings, for example, relief after experiencing sexual tension and arousal after orgasm, sometimes mixed with relief, experienced if initially there was an uncertainty in one's strengths. Fear is often a precursor to relief, although not always, because what scares us may not be completely eliminated. The moments of suffering can precede the appearance of relief when someone calms and comforts us in our grief. The moments of strong pleasure can also precede the appearance of relief. The peculiarity of relief is that it is not an isolated emotion. Unlike all other emotions, it must necessarily be preceded by some other emotion.
Another pleasant emotion is amazement . ^[176] We know very little about him, although the experience of strong amazement, which I experienced fifteen years ago, led me to the idea that it is an independent emotion. ^[177] During the five-minute conversation with Richard Shechner, a professor of theater science at New York University, I found many coincidences in our biographies, in fact, too many to be immediately understood. We both grew up in Newark, New Jersey. We both attended the same elementary school, but never encountered each other, since Richard was a year younger than me. We both moved to the same city suburb and settled on the same street! Even when I write about it now, I begin to experience the amazement that I experienced during our conversation. Richard's parents bought our house from my father after my mother died, and Richard got a room that was once my bedroom!
The defining characteristics of astonishment are its rarity and the overwhelm it causes with something incomprehensible. Unlike most other authors, who wrote about amazement, I believe that it is important to separate it from fear, although these two emotions can merge when we are threatened with something insurmountable, difficult to understand or realize. This is a very strong and inherently pleasant feeling. Almost everything that is incredible, incomprehensible and exciting, can be a source of amazement. We do not understand what it is or how it could happen, but we are not afraid of it, unless it creates a threat to our security, because in this case we also experience fear.
As Daucher Keltner and Jonathan Heydt argued in their theory of awe (the word they and other authors use to describe a combination of amazement and fear), it is caused by “objects that are difficult to comprehend with our mind ...” ^[178] in the early stages of human history, when people understood the world around them much worse. Until now, practically no scientific research of astonishment has been carried out, so you can easily imagine how difficult it would be to create conditions for the emergence of astonishment in a laboratory where it could be carefully measured.
Darwin wrote about goose pimples appearing with amazement, and this is one of the most powerful physical sensations associated with this emotion. Taking into account personal experience, I believe that tingling in the elbows and in the back of the neck also occurs when amazement occurs. It is also possible to change the breath, but not in the form of a single sigh of relief, but in the form of deep breaths and exhalations. It is also possible to shake your head as a manifestation of skepticism and distrust. It is not yet known whether characteristic signs of astonishment appear on the face, in the voice, or in body movements.
Admiration of people or recognition of their charismatic personalities evoke feelings akin to amazement, but I reiterate that these feelings will be special. Admiration does not cause the same internal sensations that cause astonishment - goose bumps, changes in breathing, sighing or shaking his head. We are ready to follow the people who inspire us, we feel loyalty to them, but when we are amazed, we keep calm and do not feel obliged to do something. Think of the reaction of people in the movie “Close Contact of the Third Kind,” when they see the lights of space ships.
Ecstasy , or bliss, that is, a state of unlimited delight, achieved by meditation alone, by fusion with nature, by others, and by the third through sexual experience with a lover or a lover, can be viewed as another pleasant emotion. Like excitement and amazement, ecstasy causes exceptionally strong experiences, and not just experiences that a person can experience in small quantities and with low intensity. ^[179]

Jennifer Capriati, whose picture is shown above, has just won the French Open Tennis Championship. She achieved something fantastic, something incredibly difficult, especially since she had to leave professional sport for several years because of personal problems. What word can describe her condition? We could say that she feels great, joyful or happy, but these words imply too many pleasant emotions. She faced a serious challenge and was able to give him a decent response. It is much more than a feeling of satisfaction, it is a kind of pride, although such a word covers too a wide range of concepts. This emotion contains the feeling that a person has managed to achieve some difficult goal, and this feeling of the achieved result turns out to be very pleasant and unique. Other people do not need to know about your achievement, you enjoy it yourself. Italian psychologist Isabella Poggi calls this emotion, which has no English name, the word fiero . ^[180]
The Capriati posture in this picture is similar to the postures of many other athletes, photographed after a hard victory won, although sport is not the only challenge that can trigger your fiero . I experience fiero when I find a solution to a complex intellectual problem. Next to me there is no audience, the enthusiastic worship of which I would have sought. Fiero requires a difficult problem and a very positive perception of himself when he reaches his goal. “Triumph” is unlikely to be the right word to describe this emotion, because it implies a victory in the competition, but such a victory is only one of the contexts in which the fiero will be felt.
I am sure that this emotion is very special; it is not like sensory pleasure, nor relief, nor fun. Arousal may precede the appearance of a fiero , when we begin to face our challenge, but a fiero is not arousal. This is an independent emotion. Indeed, although pride is traditionally mentioned in first place among the seven deadly sins, the desire to experience the fiero has been of paramount importance throughout human history, as it helped motivate great efforts and great accomplishments. ^{[181] [182]}
What do you feel when you hear that your son or your daughter is accepted to the best college, performed well at a concert, received an award from a society of scouts or achieved some other important result? We could call it pride, but this word is not concrete enough to describe the totality of physical sensations experienced by parents whose children achieve some noticeable success, perhaps even surpassing the success of their parents. However, in Yiddish there is a special word for precisely such an experience: naches . The famous author Leo Rosten defines naches as “a strong feeling of pleasure and pride that only their child can bring to their parents:“ I feel naches ””. ^[183] A related word in Yiddish will be the word kvell , which Rosten defines as follows: “To shine with pride and pleasure mainly for the success of children or grandchildren; to be so happy with the pride that is experienced that the buttons on your clothes can not withstand this feeling. ” ^[184] Naches is an emotion; kvelling is her expression. My daughter argued that children might experience naches about their parents' achievements. Her guess allows me to experience naches , and now I show kvelling .
Naches guarantees parents' investments in promoting the development and success of their children. Unfortunately, some parents do not experience naches when their children's achievements exceed their own achievements. Such envious parents often compete with their children, which can have extremely undesirable consequences for both parties. I have often observed a similar competition between teachers and students in the scientific world. “Why did they invite her to the conference instead of me? After all, I am a specialist, and she is just my student. ” Teachers, like parents, should experience naches so that the student learns to experience the fiero and is motivated by this fiero to reach new heights, expecting his mentor to exercise kvell .
These examples point to an interesting possibility for pleasant emotions that have never been experienced by some people. Of course, this can occur in the presence of physical defects that do not allow experiencing certain sensory pleasures, but mental defects are also possible, limiting the possibility of experiencing some pleasant emotions.
Anthropologist Jonathan Heydt proposes that what he calls the word elevation (from the English elevate - “ennoble”, “improve”) is considered as another pleasant emotion. He describes it as "a warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected manifestations of human generosity, kindness and compassion." ^[185] When we feel elevation , we are encouraged to become more kind, to commit altruistic actions. I have little doubt of the existence of what Heidt identified and designated with this special term, but I am not sure that it meets all the criteria that allow it to be recognized as emotion. Not all that we experience is emotion; for we also have thoughts, attitudes, and values.
Richard and Bernice Lazarus describe gratitude as “recognition of an altruistic contribution that has benefited.” ^[186] They note that when someone does something good for us and does it for altruistic reasons, and not for personal gain, we usually feel grateful. However, we may also feel embarrassed because of the attention attracted to ourselves, discontent due to the fact that we were indebted to someone, or even anger, if we realize that a person did this good deed because he found us very poor. .
Indeed, gratitude is a complex emotion, as it is difficult for us to know when it will arise. I believe that there are serious cultural differences between social situations in which gratitude may arise (for example, the question of when to tip should have different answers in the USA and, say, in Japan). In the US, when people just do their jobs, they often say they don’t expect gratitude; if the nurse simply cares for a very sick patient, then someone may say that she does not expect gratitude or does not need her. However, my experience suggests the opposite: expressing gratitude is often appreciated in such situations.
I doubt that there is a universal signal of gratitude. The only thing that comes to my mind is a slight tilt of the head, but this movement may also signal much more, such as confirmation. I am also not sure that there is a special set of physiological sensations characteristic of gratitude. This does not cast doubt on the very existence of gratitude, but only raises the question of whether it should be placed on a par with fun, relief, sensory pleasures, etc.
The feeling that you experience when you learn that your worst enemy has been seriously injured can also be pleasant; but this type of pleasure is different from those we have considered so far. In Germany, it is called schadenfreude (gloating. - Notice. Scientific. Ed. ). Unlike other pleasant emotions, schadenfreude is not favored, at least in some Western societies. (I do not know the attitude to this emotion in non-Western societies.) ^[187] It is assumed that we will not secretly triumph on the occasion of our successes and will not rejoice at the failures of our rivals. Should secret celebration be considered as an independent pleasant emotion? Probably not; it is too much like a fiero , openly displayed in front of other people.
Is there really sixteen pleasant emotions? Are the five sensory pleasures, fun, satisfaction, relief, amazement, ecstasy, fiero , naches , elevation , gratitude, and schadenfreude really qualified as independent emotions? Only studies of when they arise, how they manifest themselves externally and what happens inside us are able to give answers to these questions. In the meantime, I think we should study each of them separately.
Some may argue that if we do not have a word for emotion, we cannot qualify it. Of course, we should not be so narrow-minded as to insist on using the English word! I do not think that it is so important that there is any word for emotion in this particular language, although I expect that in some language this emotion will have its own name. Words are not emotions, they only represent emotions. But we should take care that words do not mislead us about the emotions that they represent. In itself, how we use words can sometimes mislead us. I used the word “fun” to refer to a pleasant emotion that we experience in response to something funny, usually some kind of joke, but not to mean something else that also has funny qualities. And now let's consider the emotions that we experience in the amusement park. There usually does not sound a lot of jokes, although in the case of a troupe of comedians, we can have fun from the heart. “Houses of laughter” and a roller coaster, most likely, will cause us excitement, fear and relief, and not fun. We could also experience the fiero because we were able to withstand the thrilling test of speed. If we successfully show ourselves on a bowling alley or in a dash, then we can also feel the fiero . If our child wins a prize in such games, then we can sense naches . And besides, in the course of the proposed tests, we can receive various sensual pleasures. Therefore, from the point of view of my terminology, it would be better to call such a park a pleasure park.
All these pleasant emotions motivate our lives, in general, they force us to do what is for our benefit. They encourage us to carry out activities necessary for the survival of the human race - sexual relations and parenting. All this is very different from hedonism, since altruistic actions, good deeds and the achievement of amazing results can become learned sources of fiero , excitement, fun, sensory pleasures ... and almost all pleasant emotions. The desire for pleasure should not be sole or selfish. I am sure that everything should be quite the opposite, that without friendship, without joint achievements, without contacts with other people causing sensory pleasures, our life would be dry and colorless.
Like Tomkins, I also believe that pleasure is the main motivating force in our lives. But which pleasant emotions do we like the most? Each of us can experience all these emotions, if only we are not deprived of any sense organs, but most of us have our own “specialization”, forcing us to give preference to one emotion over others. People organize their lives in such a way as to maximize the experience of obtaining such pleasures. I try to make my efforts in such a way as to experience fiero , naches and get some sensory pleasures; when I was younger, I was thinking more about achieving arousal than naches (since I had no children then). I believe that in the course of our life, we change the focus of our efforts several times, but this issue also requires serious study.
The desire for satisfaction has always been unusual for me, but I have friends for whom it has always been the main goal in life, who have always strived for calm and emotional balance. But there are people who deliberately get involved in dangerous and risky situations in order to survive arousal, fiero and relief. Finally, there are those for whom the desire to have fun, to entertain themselves and others is the main feature of their character. Altruists who are willing to work in organizations such as the Peace Corps are eager to feel the inner ascent, gratitude from those who received help, and perhaps feel the fiero .
We now turn again to a photo (click) showing General Stirm’s family reunion. Let's try to determine what pleasant emotions a daughter is having, running with her arms spread to meet her father in order to throw herself on his neck? Here, of course, there is excitement, as well as a premonition of receiving sensory pleasures from being able to embrace a dear person, re-feel the touch of his hands and smell it. Perhaps a few moments earlier, she was relieved when she saw that her father had returned from the war alive and unharmed. There may also be a moment of amazement, caused by the almost unbelievable fact of the father’s return home after a five-year absence, since five years in the life of this girl is quite a long time.
Reunion with the person to whom you are very attached, can be a universal theme for pleasant emotions. In New Guinea, I discovered that meeting friends from a nearby village was the best situation for filming spontaneous expressions of pleasure. I usually sat down at the edge of the path, almost hidden by thick undergrowth, set up a movie camera and waited for friends to meet. Meetings strengthen connections between people. Separation is able to make the heart to love even more, and therefore meeting with a dear person can be so pleasant.
Sexual relations are another universal theme that allows you to experience many pleasant emotions. They are accompanied by a variety of sensory pleasures, as well as excitement in the preceding stages and relief after the climax. Lust and sexual desire are accompanied by erotic presentiments, waiting for sensory pleasures and excitement from the prospect of getting what you want.
The birth of the desired child was mentioned by college students of both sexes more often than I expected when conducting a study on identifying the happiest events that can be imagined in our lives. Excitement, amazement, relief, fiero, and perhaps gratitude are most often cited among the pleasurable emotions arising from such events.
Being around a loved one is another universal theme. Both parental and romantic love imply a strong commitment, a strong attachment to another person. But neither is an emotion. Emotions can be very brief, and love - eternal. However, although romantic love can persist throughout life, quite often this does not happen. Parental love, on the contrary, usually manifests itself in the form of unwavering devotion to his child, although there are exceptions when parents renounce their children. There is another meaning of love, manifested in the short-term emergence of the highest pleasure and merging with another person. ^[188] This is what I previously called ecstasy, or bliss, and it can certainly be considered an emotion.
Normal family life gives us many pleasant emotions, but sometimes the emotions we experience turn out to be unpleasant. We may experience anger, disgust or disappointment in a loved one, and often we feel despair and grief when he suffers serious damage or dies. I am sure that parents can worry about the safety of their children throughout their lives, although they usually worry more about their children before they have become independent people. Contacts with children - real, evoked from the memory or imaginary - can cause a lot of pleasant emotions: sensory pleasures, naches , moments of satisfaction or excitement, relief when the child gets out of danger and, of course, fun.
Romantic love also does not exclude that a person may experience a variety of unpleasant emotions, but, fortunately, pleasant emotions arise more often. Disgust and contempt are rarely experienced, but when they arise, it signals that the relationship is in danger. The peculiarity of romantic relationships is that they suggest a more frequent occurrence of pleasant emotions. ^[189] Some couples together strive to achieve fiero , working together or finding particular satisfaction with what the partner is seeking. Other couples may pay more attention to achieving excitement or satisfaction. Although I am sure that the topics I have mentioned are universal, they are taken from my personal experience. Many other variations of these themes are also absorbed and become important sources of various emotions of pleasure.
There are moods associated with some pleasant emotions, in particular with excitement, satisfaction, and fun.These feelings can stretch for a long period, for example, lasting several hours; as a result, in such a state, a person can easily experience emotions related to his mood.
At the beginning of this section, I argued that the word “happiness” does not tell us what type of happiness occurs. Additional uncertainty also comes from the fact that happiness can be related to a completely different state, such as the general feeling of subjective well-being. Psychologist Ed Diener, a leading specialist in the study of subjective well-being, defines it as an assessment that a person gives to his life. It was mainly judged by the answers of the person: “In many ways, my life is close to ideal” or “Until now, I managed to get from life what I thought was necessary to get.” The state of well-being, apparently, is determined by many different factors: from satisfaction with success in specific areas, such as professional, to how often a person experiences pleasant emotions compared to unpleasant ones.
Subjective well-being has been widely studied all over the world with the help of special questionnaires. We will not consider in detail the consideration of the results obtained in the course of these studies and only note one universal result: the presence of a positive correlation between subjective well-being and income, providing a person with purchasing power. Intercultural differences are manifested in the fact that self-esteem is more associated with subjective well-being in Western cultures than in non-Western cultures. In all cultures, strong ties are also associated with well-being. ^[190]
There is also a set of personal characteristics related to pleasant emotions. People who, by the results of psychological tests, demonstrate a propensity for extroversion and high emotional stability, report greater satisfaction with life. ^[191] Studies on how such personality traits provide a happier life did not take into account the different types of pleasure I identified, but they tried to explain how extroversion helps a person to become happier. Extroverts may be less sensitive to punishment or refusal received or be more prone to favorable comparisons of themselves with other people. It is also possible that extroverts better than introverts fit into American culture. ^[192]
People also differ in their usual levels of optimism and vigor, and this seems to be a more reliable characteristic than a reaction to a particular situation or event. Christopher Peterson, one of the experts in this field, suggests that optimism characterizes attitudes toward the likelihood of experiencing pleasant emotions. ^[193] Although not every one of us is an inflexible optimist, having an optimistic outlook on the world will be useful for you - it is present in people who enjoy life more and more perseverance and achieve better results. Interestingly, some studies suggest that optimists have better health and live longer than pessimists. ^[194]Peterson argues that a person’s overall optimistic outlook on life "may be a biologically predetermined propensity, filled by a culture with socially acceptable content, it leads to the desired results because it provides a general state of vitality and the ability to recuperate." ^[195] Peterson also asks the question: “How does optimism feel? Is it happiness, joy, mild insanity, or simply satisfaction? ” ^[196]
In previous sections, I described how an excess of certain negative emotions, such as fear, anger, and sadness, leads to emotional distress. The general absence of pleasurable emotions, that is, the inability to experience fiero , naches, sensory pleasures, etc., is a mental disorder, called emotional anesthesia. Excessive, unrelenting agitation, sometimes mixed with bliss and fiero , is one of the signs of an emotional disorder called mania.