Pleasure-seeking housewife disheartened -- academic is married! (8)
I believe the answer is:
hedonism
'pleasure-seeking' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'housewife disheartened academic is married' is the wordplay.
'disheartened' suggests removing the centre.
'academic' becomes 'don' (I've seen this before).
'married' becomes 'm'.
'housewife' with its centre removed is 'he'.
'he'+'don'+'is'+'m'='HEDONISM'
(Other definitions for hedonism that I've seen before include "The pursuit of happiness as a matter of principle" , "The belief that pleasure is the chief good in life" , "Doctrine that pleasure is the highest good" , "His demon (anag.)" , "Lifestyle devoted to pleasure" .)