ABSTRACT
Far from being a mere sensorial representation, pleasure can, on the contrary, constitute a complex psychic experience entailing various processes, such as memory, motivation, homoeostasis, and, in some occurrences, negative affect. According to Freudian metapsychological formulation, affect is a perceptual modality that registers the internal drive state of the subject rather than the objective experience of the external world, and the quality of this perceptual modality is calibrated in degrees of pleasure and displeasure. Distinct affective and hedonic neural networks underlying the subjective/conscious dimension of pleasure and the objective/unconscious dimension have been recently identified. However, a single functional circuit, incorporated into the broader dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic system, seems to be involved in various experiences of pleasure. Pleasure–pain dynamics may explain how hedonic experiences can be, in their complexity.
