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Around pain
Published in Stephen Buetow, Rethinking Pain in Person-Centred Health Care, 2020
“Opponent process theory” explains this phenomenon in terms of the tendency of affective states such as pain typically to arouse affective opponent processes.105 For example, pain may heighten the sensitivity and receptivity of other senses to afford relief or pleasure;106 co-mingle these states with displeasure; and reinforce behaviour producing such mixed feelings. However, the timing of the relief response is still unclear. Persons might similarly and (more) concurrently recover and maintain balance in which they welcome pain. Acceptance and allostasis offer them an almost immediate respite from emotional trauma more unpleasant than the pain. For example, by substituting for, and neutralizing, intense emotional distress, the pain might help them regulate their emotions.107
From suffering to satisfaction
Published in David Bain, Michael Brady, Jennifer Corns, Philosophy of Suffering, 2019
While the process of adaptation can lead to a pleasant experience becoming less intense and more mundane overtime, the experience of relief provides insight into why suffering has the capacity to increase pleasure. Opponent process theory observes that, broadly speaking, there is a pattern whereby a negative experience gives way to a sense of relief that in turn releases an experience of pleasure. Furthermore, the experience of pleasure tends to exceed the preceding hedonic state (Solomon & Corbit, 1974).
The Frequency and Subjective Impact of Painful and Provocative Events on the Acquired Capability for Suicide
Published in Archives of Suicide Research, 2021
Brian W. Bauer, Anna R. Gai, Thomas E. Joiner, Daniel W. Capron
Specifically, the acquired capability for suicide is thought to develop through experiencing painful and provocative events (PPEs) over the course of a person’s lifetime. PPEs encompass a wide range of emotional and physical experiences including self-injury, sexual abuse, shooting a gun, combat exposure, being in a physical fight, etc. The acquired capability for suicide is largely based on opponent-process theory (Solomon & Corbit, 1974)—a habituation model that posits that repeated exposure to events containing processes with an effective balance strengthens the secondary/opponent processes over time. For example, when people engage in non-suicidal self-injury for the first time they may predominately feel pain and fear (primary processes) with a small amount of relief (secondary/opponent process). If the person continues to self-injure, the opponent process (relief) increases in strength and may ultimately become dominant. Over time, this individual would increase their pain tolerance and fearlessness about death making them more capable of engaging in a lethal suicide attempt.
How Does Our Brain Generate Sexual Pleasure?
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2021
Barry R. Komisaruk, Maria Cruz Rodriguez del Cerro
More complex, “higher” levels of neural organization in the brain utilize the same principle of hard-wired active excitation coupled with active inhibition. Thus, painful stimulation activates a pain-inhibitory system that attenuates the pain and at extremely intense levels produces actual blackout…unconsciousness. Similarly, pleasurable stimulation also excites an active inhibitory system. The intense excitation at orgasm excites a pain-inhibitory system and also an inhibitory system that produces the “refractory period” in men, during which somatosensory responses are attenuated (Allen & Komisaruk, 2016). This type of excitation/inhibition has been termed, the “opponent-process” theory (Solomon, 1980).
Neural Plasticity in the Ventral Tegmental Area, Aversive Motivation during Drug Withdrawal and Hallucinogenic Therapy
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2023
Hector Vargas-Perez, Taryn Elizabeth Grieder, Derek van der Kooy
Negative reinforcement is a powerful motivational influence on drug use, and the escape or avoidance of a negative motivational state is a main reason for the use of addictive drugs (Baker et al. 2004). According to the opponent process theory, the withdrawal from a rewarding stimulus could become the main trigger for an aversive motivational state. The severity and duration of the aversive state depends largely on the intensity of the hedonic impact of the missing gratifying stimulus (Frenois, Le Moine, and Cador 2005; Solomon and Corbit 1974).