Different Pleasures

Have you ever thought about how pleasure exists in the past, present, and future? Pal Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has studied pleasure extensively. He divides pleasure into three types: anticipatory pleasure, which involves looking forward to something; actual pleasure, which is what's happening right now; and remembered pleasure, when you're reliving an experience afterward. According to his theory, when you maximize one kind of pleasure, you usually experience a reduction in one or both of the others.

If you value a life of ease and comfort, you probably lean toward maximizing anticipatory and actual pleasures. You do this by going for predictable outcomes that you enjoy, like ordering the same meals at a few favorite restaurants or returning each year to a Florida condo that has a beautiful ocean view. You look forward to these experiences because you know what to expect and the actual experience is pleasurable.

Like anticipating and enjoying the comfortable predictability of routine sex, there's certainly value in known pleasures. The problem is that if you limit yourself to only the familiar, your experiences are not particularly memorable. Nothing really stands out.

Tomorrow I'll post on remembered pleasure.