Posted by yxibow on July 3, 2009, at 0:51:55
In reply to Re: Guilt free pleasure » bulldog2, posted by Phillipa on July 2, 2009, at 20:25:44
Hmm... not sure about a biochemical wiring.... I think it is more psychological and psychodynamic issues and societal pressures.
I can give you one of the most obvious examples -- masturbating. Oh, don't shy from the statistics, I'd say about 99% of people have done it in their lives.For reasons I'm not going to go into all of them at the moment (they're not religious), it is simple pleasure, relieves anxiety, and yet there's guilt attached to it for me on some level.
I will say it is my self-image, where I am with major psychiatric problems, and my weight problems from medication which makes it hard to get into a fantasy when the image of my body now pops into the picture.
Yes, I'm sure as long as we've been humans, there's been hedonism.
Some hedonism should have conscience and restraint -- Schadenfreude (the sheer
pleasure of other people's misery -- it can't really be translated from the German).......humour and jokes are funny, but some will inevitably hurt someone. Of course there's the saying you can't please everyone all the time...
...but I believe pleasure that involves as close as one can get to "victim free" (what we all do impacts the earth and people around us, socially, politically, morally -- again, societal views) should be an important part of our lives.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:904246
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090630/msgs/904668.html