Moralistic self-denial weakens and coarsens the capacity for immediate pleasure

Evidence

For the bourgeois character, it is not the case that pleasurable moments radiate happiness out across the whole of life and also brighten up those parts which are not pleasant in themselves. The capacity for immediate pleasure is instead weakened by the idealists’ preaching of refinement and self-denial, it is coarsened and often lost entirely. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 738

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing work on moral panics and sumptuary norms — the same logic of self-denial preaching is at play in the immodesty article. — connects to: Moral inhibition and early disappointment create a vicious cycle blocking female pleasure. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 988; Delay of gratification reflects prefrontal maturity, not moral character — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 5900; Modern individualism structurally erodes the capacity for gratitude — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 496 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Moral inhibition and early disappointment create a vicious cycle blocking female pleasure. #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 988
• Delay of gratification reflects prefrontal maturity, not moral character #complicates (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 5900
• Modern individualism structurally erodes the capacity for gratitude #qualifies (0.72) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 496
• Self-inflicted suffering can be embodied ethical performance rather than punishment #qualifies (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 463