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A reduced capacity for pleasure has traditionally been viewed in psychology and psychiatry as a symptom – most often in the context of depressive disorders. In clinical classifications, loss of pleasure (anhedonia) is included in the diagnostic criteria for a number of mental conditions and is frequently interpreted as a deficit or disturbance of the emotional sphere.

However, clinical practice as well as data from contemporary neuroscience indicate that loss of pleasure often occurs outside the framework of psychopathology and may be observed in individuals without depression, anxiety disorders, or other clinical diagnoses. In such cases, reduced pleasure is not accompanied by pronounced affective suffering, but manifests as a background «flatness» of experience, diminished interest, and weakened bodily responsiveness.

A modern regulatory perspective makes it possible to understand this state differently – as a functional adaptation of the nervous system to prolonged load. In this context, the issue is not a deficit, a «breakdown,» or a loss of emotional capacity, but a redistribution of regulatory resources aimed at maintaining survival and functionality under conditions of chronic stress.

This view allows excessive pathologization to be reduced and loss of pleasure to be understood as a reflection of the current operating mode of the nervous system.

2.1. Pleasure as a Neurophysiological Function

From a scientific perspective, pleasure is not a discrete emotion nor a subjective «reaction to a stimulus,» but an integrative neurophysiological process. It includes sensory perception, interoceptive feedback, activity of reward systems, and regulation of arousal within the autonomic nervous system¹.