It is very important to be aware of the difference today, when pleasure is one of the most important commodities that we are constantly bombarded with and tried to win over for consumption.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi distinguishes between the two experiences in his book Flow.
He writes about it like this:
“Pleasure is the feeling of satisfaction that we achieve when, according to the information in our consciousness, one of the desires built into us by our biological program or social expectations is satisfied. When we are hungry, the taste of food is pleasant because it restores the disturbed physiological balance. Pleasure is indeed an important factor in terms of the quality of life, but it does not cause happiness in itself. Sleep, rest, food and sex provide appropriate homeostatic experiences, restoring the state of equilibrium of consciousness that has been disturbed by bodily needs and that creates psychic entropy.”
According to the author, who is a psychologist, these experiences do not provide an opportunity for psychological development, nor do they help the self become more complex.
According to him, joyful events occur when someone not only satisfies their previously formulated expectations, needs, or desires, but also goes beyond what was programmed into them and achieves something completely unexpected for them, something they had not even suspected before.
According to Csíkszentmihályi's research, joyful events are characterized by this forward movement; a sense of novelty, a sense of accomplishment.
His interesting observation is that we can enjoy an activity without investing psychic energy, but the fullness of joy only appears after we devote more than usual attention to it. That is, when we concentrate completely on the given activity. This is why, he writes, pleasure is so fleeting and that the self does not develop through purely pleasurable experiences.
“Becoming whole requires investing our psychic energy in achieving new, relatively complex goals.”