In Friday's class, we discussed the difference between pleasures and gratifications. Pleasures are momentary and they require hardly any thinking. On the other hand, gratifications involve commitment but they bring fundamental happiness. At first, I could not see how this connected to what we were doing before but the point seems to be this; successful negotiations count as gratifications. Negotiating is a way of solving problems so it is gratifying to find the best solutions, and in the sense that you get your preferences, it is directly linked to obtaining happiness in life.
I do believe that gratifications bring lasting happiness but there is one thing I cannot agree with concerning the contents of the class and that is the positioning of 'laughter'. It was categorised into 'pleasures' but I do not think this is an accurate observation because laughter is essential for the well-being of individuals. There is a story about a guy who had a terminal illness and was told that his days were numbered. He decided to spend the time he had left watching funny movies and so he was laughing a lot when the doctors did a check-up. It turns out the illness had somehow cured itself and he was no longer suffering from it. You could argue that this was just a special case and that it was nothing more than pure luck. Well yes, just because you laugh a lot does not mean that all illnesses can be cured. However, laughter is a way of releasing stress and we all know that too much stress is bad for your health. The man was, I admit, very lucky but it is likely that laughter may have played an important role in saving his life. If you look at it this way, it seems inappropriate to just dismiss laughter as a form of pleasure.
I find that I laugh quite a lot which is probably a good thing and it makes me happy, but I also realise that there are not many gratifications in my life at the moment. Life is full of pleasures, everything seems temporary and there is no real goal which makes it hard for me to concentrate on anything. I believe the biggest difference between pleasures and gratifications is the amount of effort that you put in to it, so I hope I will be able to find something worth pursuing and experience a sense of achievement that would truly fill my life with happiness.
I agree with you about the categorization of laughter. The sheer state of a person being able to laugh should be a kind of gratification, even though according to that PPT slide during class gratification needs effort and consumes time. One interesting thing about laughter is that it happens almost unconsciously. We use it in our daily lives to show emotion and to strengthen social bonds. Looking at it this way, laughing does seems to be quite crucial for humans rather than it being just a form of pleasure.
ReplyDeleteHi Hitomi!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest...I never thought much about the difference between pleasures and gratifications before our class. Now, I personally think gratifications are what make our lives... Like the essential part of our life! On the other hand, pleasures are more like you are happy if you experience or have it.
On Ken's recent blog post "Try to smile" was under gratifications so I actually think it is!
Yea! I also need to find something meaningful in my life!
Moeka
Hi Hitiomi,
ReplyDeleteLaughter is important, absolutely. Sometimes there is nothing better than a good belly laugh. The point, however, is that ultimately we need something more than just laughter.