Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The inability to experience pleasure, as seen in certain mood disorders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In psychology, inability to feel pleasure: the opposite of analgesia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine, psychiatry The inability to feel pleasure.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an inability to experience pleasure

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin anhēdonia : Greek an-, without; see a– + Greek hēdonē, pleasure; see swād- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French anhédonie (coined by Ribot, 1896), from Ancient Greek ἀν- + ἡδονή ("pleasure").

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Examples

  • Professor Ribot has proposed the name anhedonia to designate this condition.

    The Varieties of Religious Experience 1902

  • {143} Professor Ribot has proposed the name anhedonia to designate this condition.

    Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature William James 1876

  • It's being looked at to help people with anhedonia, which is an inability to experience pleasure from certain activities.

    CHIP AHOY! News from Mad Plato 2008

  • It's being looked at to help people with anhedonia, which is an inability to experience pleasure from certain activities.

    Archive 2008-12-01 News from Mad Plato 2008

  • Appetites for both food and sexual pleasure fade, creating a state called anhedonia, or a lack of pleasure-seeking.

    Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One Ann Smolin 1993

  • Appetites for both food and sexual pleasure fade, creating a state called anhedonia, or a lack of pleasure-seeking.

    Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One Ann Smolin 1993

  • Appetites for both food and sexual pleasure fade, creating a state called anhedonia, or a lack of pleasure-seeking.

    Healing After the Suicide of a Loved One Ann Smolin 1993

  • In the condition called anhedonia, which we shall hear of from time to time, there is a blocking or dropping out of the sense of desire and satisfaction even if through habit one eats, drinks, has sexual relationship, keeps up his work and carries out his plans.

    The Foundations of Personality 1921

  • "One of the major problems in depression is what is called anhedonia -- an inability to be able to be satisfied or happy or content with normally pleasurable activities in life."

    canada.com Top Stories 2010

  • "One of the major problems in depression is what is called anhedonia -- an inability to be able to be satisfied or happy or content with normally pleasurable activities in life."

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

Comments

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  • From Greek hedonē, pleasure, and a-privative.

    August 18, 2008

  • Seen in dysphoric or depressed people. A pervasive loss of interest in pleasurable activities.

    "The hedonist became anhedonic after suffering a stroke."

    August 19, 2008

  • "Decreased motivation to seek and experience pleasurable experiences, known as anhedonia, is a primary symptom of major depressive disorder. Anhedonia is less responsive to many antidepressants and often persists after other symptoms of depression subside."

    - Worth The Effort? Not If You're Depressed, sciencedaily.com, 16 August 2009.

    August 19, 2009