What makes pleasure

What's actually happening inside someone's brain and body to create that euphoria? According to sexologist Laura McGuire , PhD, there are three main physiological reasons someone feels sexual pleasure: the pudendal nerve , dopamine, and oxytocin. The pudendal nerve is a large, sensitive nerve that allows someone's genitals to send signals to their brain. In people who have vulvas, it has branches in the clitoris, the anus, and the perineum the area between the anus and the vulva or the anus and the penis.

In people who have penises, the pudendal nerve branches out to the anus, the perineum, and the penis. McGuire says. The pudendal nerve explains how signals get from someone's genitals to their brain during sex, and then the brain releases dopamine and oxytocin, which causes a flood of happy, pleasurable feelings. Like oxytocin, dopamine helps your brain make connections. It connects emotional pleasure to physical pleasure during sex, Dr.

Oxytocin and dopamine are both in a class of hormones considered part of the brain's reward system, says Lawrence Siegel , a clinical sexologist and certified sexuality educator.

As someone's body reaches orgasm, they flood their system because the brain is essentially trying to medicate them, Siegel says.

As someone gets aroused , their heart rate increases, their body temperature goes up, and their muscles tense, all of which happen when someone's body is in trouble, too. Yet, not everyone desires sex. Some people experience contractions throughout the entire body. This process is different for males and females.

Although most males cannot have an orgasm immediately after ejaculating, many females can. During the resolution stage, most males and many females experience a refractory period. During this time, the person will not respond to sexual stimulation.

Some researchers have proposed alternative models for resolution. Rosemary Basson proposes a nonlinear model of female sexual response. Her model emphasizes that females have sex for many reasons, and that their sexual response may not proceed according to predictable stages.

The clitoris is, for most females, the point of origination for sexual pleasure. It has thousands of nerve endings , making it highly sensitive. Portions of the clitoris extend deep into the vagina, allowing some women to get indirect clitoral stimulation through vaginal stimulation. Learn more about the clitoris here. For men, the head of the penis is similar to the clitoris in that it is often the most sensitive area.

Nerves in sexual areas of the body send specific signals to the brain, and the brain uses those signals to create various sexual sensations. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that help the brain communicate with other areas of the body. Several neurotransmitters have a role in sexual pleasure:. Sex is not pleasurable for everyone. In fact, some people feel pain during sex.

This is much more prevalent in females. People who identify as demisexual may only experience sexual pleasure in limited contexts, such as when they feel in love with a partner. Some other factors that can affect sexual pleasure across all genders and sexual orientations include:.

Some people, especially females , report that doctors dismiss sexual pain or tell them that it is all in their heads. People who do not get sensitive, responsive care from a healthcare provider should switch providers or seek a second opinion. Sex does not have to hurt, and there is almost always a solution. A knowledgeable and compassionate provider should be committed to diagnosing and treating the issue.

Clear communication with a trusted partner can make sex more pleasurable by helping the partners discuss their needs openly. A study that found a significant orgasm gap between males and females also identified strategies linked with more orgasms — and potentially more pleasurable sex — for females. These strategies include:. Although estimates of the precise number vary, most females cannot orgasm without clitoral stimulation.

For some females, indirect stimulation from certain sexual positions, such as being on top, is enough. Others need direct, prolonged stimulation during or separate from intercourse. A very short but deep and influential discussion of pleasure leads up to a dismissal of ethical hedonism in particular, and perhaps of any appeal to pleasure in theory quite generally, on p. Anscombe , 3 vols. III, pp. Original publication: Philosophy , 33 : 1— II, pp. Original publication: Journal of Philosophy , 64 19 : — I, pp.

Original publication: Grazer Philosophische Studien , 5 : — The Blackfriars edition, vol. Also relevant is question 11 in vol. Argyle, Michael, 1st ed. II, 7. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle, Politics. Aristotle, Protrepticus.

B87 may be found in the Complete Works at p. Aristotle, Rhetoric I: 11 gives a version of the standard Platonic-Academic definition of pleasure rather than that of the ethical works listed just above.

Book II: 1—11 discusses specific emotions, characterizing most as forms of pleasure and pain. Aristotle, Topica. Armstrong, D. Ashby, F. A dopamine-pleaure interpretation lies, in part, behind the title. XIV,vi on pleasure as belonging to the Will and XIV,vii elaborating this ethically and theologically as a form of love into which is packed not only all motivation but all natural motion and a tie to the Holy Spirit of Trinitarian theology as well.

There are many editions and translations. Augustine, , De Trinitate , trans. Distinguishes affective reactions from sensory states in this discussion only of physical bodily pleasure, with reference especially to the — Anglo-American philosophical literature. Zalta ed. Bain, Alexander, , The Emotions and the Will , 3rd ed. Appleton and Co. Bargh, John A. Zajonc , Washington: American Psychological Association. Bartolic, E. Beebe-Center, J. Summarizes and discusses results and controversies in the introspectionist academic experimental psychology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Berridge, Craig W. Berridge, Kent C. Contains responses to additional commentaries. Abridged and revised from Block Bolles, Robert C. Brandt, Richard B. Original publication: Harlan B. Miller and William H. Williams, eds. Brandt , Boulder: Westview Press, pp.

A reply to objections in a volume with a useful bibliography and critical papers, among which that by L. Note 39 on pp. Many of the same questions explicitly or implicitly arise: Is pleasure a distinct act? If not, what is its relation to the acts to which it belongs? What are its relations to sensation and thought? Does a conscious act always or sometimes take itself as an object in a different way from any others it has or is another act always required to reflect on or take pleasure in it?

Schneewind trans. McAlister trans. Brink, David O. Broad, C. Bruder, Gerard E. Buddhaghosa c. There have been full and partial reprintings of these sermons. Using the Augustinian language of love, he argues that self-interest the object of self-love is dependent on there being specific passions i. Cacioppo, John T. Chisholm, Roderick M.

Churchland, Paul M. Cicero, de finibus bonorum et malorum On Ultimate Goods and Ills. Clore, Gerald L. Coan, James A. Cooper, John M. See pp. Craig, A. Dalgleish, Tim and Mick J. Power eds. Damasio, Antonio R. Now widely thought correct in its main direction, although of course dated in evidence and detail. But a great Darwin read! And Ekman brings the science almost up to date in his notes. Davidson, Richard J. Davidson and Anne Harrington, eds.

An analysis in terms of beliefs about the satisfaction of desires. See Bibliography annotation to Strack, Argyle, and Schwarz Identifies the two, so the analyses of the other papers, too, apply to our subject.

Depue, Richard and Paul F. Defends a dopaminergic view of all these and, in part, of positive affect as well. Depue, Richard A. III Anthony Kenny, trans. Vrin, — Diener, Ed ed. Drevets, Wayne C. Classic paper on the relations of pleasure and motivation, by a psychologist well-versed in the history of thought about this topic generally and especially in the traditions of introspectionist psychology and phenomenology.

A source for some early twentieth century psychological literature in German. Through this paper this German literature may have influenced philosophers writing in English in the following decades, and what they found to be obvious in experience or in ordinary English.

Edwards, Rem B. Ekman, Paul and Davidson, Richard J. Ellsworth, Phoebe C. Empedocles c. Epicurus d. Gerson, eds. Original publication: Ethics , April : — Clearly reviews some main kinds of account given by twentieth century philosophers and proposes that the central kind of pleasure is a special attitude and that others are its intentional objects. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker eds. Part of a symposium at Brown University. Findlay, J. The argument is strongly reminiscent of one used by the psychologist William McDougall e.

Forgas, Joseph P. Fox, Michael D. Snyder, Justin L. Vincent, Maurizio Corbetta, David C. Van Essen, and Marcus E. Claims there are many positive emotions, although not as well discriminated as negative ones; joy, interest contentment and love as a complex of these and others are mentioned. Plausible but vague view that positive emotions serve to broaden attention and cognitive style, which seems to fit a broader range of phenomena than cited. While repeated in later publications, the view seems not yet to have been worked out in greater detail.

Haviland, eds. Not in the 2nd ed. Scherer, Angela Schorr and Tom Johnstone, eds. Fuchs, Alan E. Gardiner, H. The most thorough historical account to date in English. Gardner, Eliot L. Gazzaniga, Michael ed. References to recent philosophical literature on these controversial questions are provided. Glare, P. Good on etymology, too. Gosling, J. The best introductory book on pleasure, too. Uncluttered and engagingly written, but with only a short select bibliography by way of references.

The aim is to distinguish disparate uses and claims run together in the hedonist tradition, without denying the existence or importance of occurrent positive affect in our emotional or active lives. Distinctions made in the course of the twentieth century reaction against hedonism are used to dissect hedonist claims and arguments while excesses of the ordinary language literature mentioned especially toward the end of n. A work for undergraduates that wears its wisdom and scholarship lightly while attentive to the intuitive sources and motivations of hedonism in human life.

Thorough and scholarly, but sometimes the interpretations are controversial. Gusnard, Debra A. Haber, Suzanne N. Fudge, and Nikolaus R. Claims there are distinct moral emotions reflected to differing extents in different enculturated moralities. Matilal , Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. Harkins, Jean and Anna Wierzbicka eds. Heilman, Kenneth M. Hejmadi, Ahalya, Richard J.

Psychological Science , 11 3 : — Suggests there are a plurality of basic positive affects. Requires corroboration by other methods, if additions are to be regarded as affects and as basic, rather than just as social signals; e.

Heller, Wendy; Koven, Nancy S. Helm, Bennett W. Wood, T. Scott-Craig, and Bernard Gert, trans. Contains translation of De Homine , chs.

Hoebel, Bart; Rada, Pedro V. Houk, James C. Hugdahl, Kenneth and Davidson, Richard J. Hundert, E. A review of Helm a. Isen, Alice. Snyder and Shane J. Ito, Tiffany A. Izard, Carroll E. More daring in its interpretations and evolutionary speculation than the literature written for scientists. Miller, Jr.

Section II, Hedonism, discusses well some options for relating pleasure and desire. A program for getting from momentary self-reports to somethingmore. Excellent and accessible.

Contains contributions from psychologists and others representing different subfields and literatures, generally more accessible than papers written for specialists.

Probably the best single place to start reading scientfic literature on the subject. Kahneman, Daniel and Amos Tversky eds.

Kahneman, Daniel, Wakker, Peter P. See especially, with pages in the Academy edition, referenced in the entry just below, in parentheses: p. Adding the last of these formally to the medieval Intellect and Will may be new with him, although eighteenth century predecessors, perhaps especially J.

Sulzer, came very close Gardiner, Metcalf, and Beebe Center, , ch. The relevant passage is on p. VII, pp.

Katkov, G. The loving is itself part of the act of sensing at which it is directed. One suspects this may be all the reflexivity intended; Chisholm has a loving of a loving in his analysis, which seems a permissible, but not a mandatory, reading of other Brentano texts.

Katz, Leonard D. An attempt to revive and reform pleasure-centered theorizing in both areas, in the spirit of the simple picture of pleasure. Includes discussion of the ancients, utilitarians, and of neuroscience through Some points are used and some improved upon or corrected here. Short commentary on Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky by a philosopher. VI, pp. Kirk, G. Kraye, Jill ed. Kringelbach, Morten.

Kringelbach, Morten L. Berridge eds. Nordgren eds. Lamme, Victor A. Lane, Richard D. Lane, Richard D, and Nadel, Lynn, eds. Larue, Gerald A. Many now take a less specific view of amygdala function. Liddell, Henry George and Robert Scott, rev.

Henry Stuart Jones, , 9th ed. Reports of the naive libertine hedonism of Yang Chu, apparently rare in extant ancient Chinese prose, are in chapter 7. Nidditch ed. II,xx and xxi are most relevant. Long, A. I containing English translations and Vol. II containing Greek texts. Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus, 1st c. This exposition of Epicureanism in verse is available in many editions and translations.

J: Humanities. Chapter 11 critically discusses Ryle a and b but overlooks the relevant chapter in his Madell, Geoffrey, , Philosophy, Music and Emotion. There have been several identically paginated reprint editions. But see note on his above. Robson ed. Chapter XXV, pp. Mill, John Stuart, 1st ed.