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This book review took me a full week to write. Every time I sat down to collect my thoughts my phone would ping with a message from a friend and I would get swept up in whatever their drama was. One of those days I got a message from a young woman on a dating app, and the idea of meeting her for dinner consumed my mind to the point where I wrote nothing at all. Although frustrating, now that I am on day five of attempting to write this review, I have come to find it precisely appropriate that the dopamine mechanism in my brain kept me distracted for a full week. But let’s get to it. What makes you human? Is it your hopes and dreams, your imagination, your desires, your plans and passions? It’s not an easy question. But one thing is certain. Whatever the answer is, it depends on one little molecule produced by your brain: Dopamine.
Glamour creates desires that cannot be fulfilled because they are desires for things that exist only in the imagination. The ability to put forth effort is dopaminergic. We need to believe we can succeed before we are able to succeed. Now I see clearly how these books don't actually answer anything: they just use other terminology. For instance, to the question: why are we anxious? A book like this answers: Oh, simple, you see, it's because of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Another interesting anecdote is the idea that almost anything can become addicting if it triggers your dopamine circuits. I experienced this myself one year when I went on four separate multi-day vacations each precisely one month apart. After returning home from the fourth trip, I spent an entire week planning number five until I eventually talked myself out of it. I have personally found it true that any repeated behavior that gives me a positive hit of dopamine can become something that I crave again and again. For some people it’s an injection of heroin, for others it’s getting on an airplane to a vacation destination. These blinks combine the latest insights from psychology, neuroscience, and social studies to explore the powers and pitfalls of this incredible molecule.Analogies represent a very dopaminergic way of thinking about the world. Here’s an example: light can sometimes act like individual bullets being fired from a gun, and at other times like ripples traveling across a pond. An analogy pulls out the abstract, unseen essence of a concept, and matches it with a similar essence of an apparently unrelated concept.
Just as dopamine is the molecule of obsessive yearning, the chemicals most associated with long-term relationships are oxytocin and vasopressin. Dopamine doesn’t come equipped with a conscience. Rather, it is a source of cunning fed by desire. When it’s revved up, it suppresses feelings of guilt, which is an H&N emotion. From dopamine's point of view, it's not the having that matters. It's getting something – anything – that's new. From this understanding – the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it – we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion – and we can even predict those behaviours in ourselves and others.The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas – and progress itself. Also, on a side note, for the love of God and all you hold dear, please stop this nonsense encountered so often in nonfiction books of introducing concepts as follows: Chapter 7: Harmony...................................................................................................... 283
In the past, when I was even more naïve as to how the world works than I am today, I'd think this book explained a lot of human nature. Daniel Z. Lieberman, M.D. is professor and vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. Dr. Lieberman is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a recipient of the Caron Foundation Research Award, and he has published over 50 scientific reports on behavioral science. He has provided insight on psychiatric issues for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Commerce, and the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy, and has discussed mental health in interviews on CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS. Dr. Lieberman studied the Great Books at St. John's College. He received his medical degree and completed his psychiatric training at New York University. From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the having that matters. It’s getting something – anything – that’s new. From this understanding – the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it – we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion – and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others.In The Molecule of More, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer from mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different. As opposed to the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine, these chemicals give us pleasure from sensation and emotion. From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the having that matters. It’s getting something―anything―that’s new. From this understanding―the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it―we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion―and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others.
Understanding why we do the dangerous and unhealthy stuff is the roadmap to creating the best possible life. When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine firing rate drops to zero, and that feels terrible. Our brain simply loves to get high and for a long time we couldn´t get good stuff from the outer world ( it must have been terrible) when we were still stonagey and before, but we had those fine centers for own opioids, own cannabinoids, but especially the other hormones that aren´t so fancy. No matter where we look, to the love in our beds, to the digital shopping card, enemies and frenemies at work, what we love and hate about political parties, we are wired to react like animals.When there is not enough dopamine in this circuit, people become stiff and shaky, and they move slowly. The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviours and cultural ideas – and progress itself. Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long have pulled off an amazing feat. They have made a biography of a neurotransmitter a riveting read. Once you understand the power and peril of dopamine, you'll better understand the human condition itself.
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