Tags
As white as a cotton cloud Silence sea and sky, “Missing you could turn from pain to pleasure - if I knew you were missing me too.", Ooo you are awful - but I like you, Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure, There's a magic land not far from here and they call it Nutwood
The Cloud Concise Dictionary of Sparkling and Strange Words presents;
Algedonic
Pronunciation:
IPA(key): /æld͡ʒɪˈdɒnɪk/
Adjective –
Algedonic (comparative – more algedonic – superlative – most – algedonic.
Algolagnistic
Definition –
- Pertaining to both pleasure and pain (some definitions stipulate it being specific to sexual experiences – butt on the hole I disagree).
- Relating to the affections of pleasantness and unpleasantness entwined as one
- An unhealthy glee in the glory of the painful personally experienced – *see hedonic reversal.
*example sentence – “When it comes to eating red hot chillies, riding incredibly frightening rollercoasters and sticking safety pins through his knob, Gerald has always been algedonic I hear.”
Etymology –
From Ancient Greek ἄλγος (algos, “pain”) + ἡδονή ‘pleasure’.
Not To Be Confused With –
- Epicaricacy/Schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. (Impossible not to encounter within the span of the human lifetime at least once. Or twice). These words are loanwords from German. The literal English translation is ‘Harm-Joy’. It is the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer misfortune. It is also borrowed by some other languages.
-
Sadism/Sadomasochism – “The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness. So the best way seems to be to scourge oneself with thin cords which hurt superficially, rather than to use some other means which might produce serious internal injury “ – Saint Ignatius of Loyola – (he was a laugh a minute at tea parties apparently.)
-
Gloating – not big, not clever.
-
Algivorous – feeding on algae. Blop.
-
Algid – A bit nippy out – chilly.
-
Algernon the Pug from ‘Rupert the Bear’ – You’re just being silly now – stop it.
Interesting extras–
Only humans seem to be able to derive pleasure from the negative sensation itself. Animals have been trained to endure self-harm, but only within the context of positive reinforcement. (Trained by humans of course, the dimmest bulbs in the lighting rig at times.)
Articles –
Algedonics and Sensationalism – 1909 -http://www.jstor.org/stable/2011082
Psychology Today – The Pleasure of Pain – http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199909/the-pleasure-pain
The Axiological Theory of Pleasure – http://www.academia.edu/2950473/The_Axiological_Theory_of_Pleasure
Esme's Cloud 
What, no comments?
Hast thou shame?
As for myself, having a somewhat high tolerance of pain, it’s never been a source of pleasure, more of a grit of tooth endurance and dispensing of expletives heaped upon the source, who or whatever that may be. But then I’ve never considered it a worthy basis for pleasure—and I’m somewhat proud to say—it simply never occurred to me, only something to be avoided, at all costs.
But other people’s pain is of another entirely different matter. Depending of course on who they are and what they’ve done to warrant my justification and satisfaction, and even gloating with pleasure of their suffering.
But now I must wonder what it is I have been missing about pain for all these years.
Just the same, I’ll stay the path of avoidance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“What, no comments? – Hast thou shame?” – I know! I’m considering removing the like button again so as to force people, (whether they like it or not), to write a few words to show myself an the cloud exactly ‘what’ it is they like about said post. I might just leave it as it is though, hard to say.
Emily Dickinson says this on the subject of pain –
Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there was
A time when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.
Oft I believe it is the danger or that the relief of the pain ceasing that gleans the most pleasure for people. For example, when taking off shoes that are far too tight after having to walk a mile in them, the relief is so great, so pleasurable that for some, it might be worth wearing said shoes occasionally just to experience that level of happiness. People who are nuts. Laughs. The things that make us miserable often come hand in hand with those that can make us joyous, though it would be fair to say that that might not come under the banner mentioned as technically it is not the pain that is being enjoyed so I’ve most likely just wasted a good few letters writing this.
I think there is a power to be had from enduring pain, and it may be that feeling is exaggerated if we should choose to have the pain inflicted ourselves.
Try sticking a pin in your arm and let me know how it goes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And this too of pain, no matter how ethereal one feels, peaceful, spiritual in deep out of reality meditation, transcending the bounds of physical existence unto the heavenly spheres of surreal joy, or just high, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that brings one back to reality faster than pain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true, especially if the pain is sudden, however I would also posit that long-term ongoing pain, once above a certain level (depending upon the person), also takes one to another plane, and away from reality as we know it, and once there, it is possible to bring meditation into the equation, not easy, but very possible. There is an untold limit to a humans capability to endure greater and greater pain, just as there seems no limit to the amount they will inflict upon other each other and all species that surround them.
I’m not a huge fan of humans it would be fair to say.
But some do get approval.
Once in a blue moon.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In response to your comment above, I ‘liked’ this because it made me laugh (especially Gerald). Perhaps one thing that makes this peculiar state of affairs possible is that very often, when thinking we experience physical pain, what we in fact experience is suffering caused by an idea of physical pain. When we look very closely at the pure felt sensation, quite often it reduces to little pin-pricks of apparent heat and/or pressure that form a flux of coming and going impressions. In leaping to the assumption that this is unpleasant, we create a suffering in our mental sphere. Now, because we’ve largely transferred the phenomena into the realm of ideas, it becomes possible to switch, in an instant, that idea about the physical pain to its opposite. If this were to occur at speed, which thoughts do of course, then we can see how the appearance – though it is only that – manifests of a simultaneous pleasure and pain i.e. “entwined as one”.
LikeLike