Marijuana poll

What does it really mean for the brain to experience pleasure? That's the question neuroscientist David Linden asks in his new book The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good. In it, he traces the origins of pleasure in the human brain and how and why we become addicted to certain food, chemicals and behaviors.

When he spoke with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, he explained that the scientific definition of addiction is actually rooted in the brain's inability to experience pleasure.

"There are variants in genes that turn down the function of dopamine signaling within the pleasure circuit," Linden explains. While most people are able to achieve a certain degree of pleasure with only moderate indulgence, those with blunted dopamine systems are driven to overdo it. Linden explains, "In order to get to that same set point of pleasure that others would get to easily — maybe with two drinks at the bar and a laugh with friends — you need six drinks at the bar to get the same thing."

"Any one of us could be an addict at any time," Linden says. "Addiction is not fundamentally a moral failing — it's not a disease of weak-willed losers. When you look at the biology, the only model of addiction that makes sense is a disease-based model, and the only attitude towards addicts that makes sense is one of compassion." Rather than seeking pleasure, addicts are fulfilling a need.

Excerpt: 'The Compass Of Pleasure'
by David J. Linden
We humans have a complicated and ambivalent relationship to pleasure, which we spend an enormous amount of time and re­sources pursuing. A key motivator of our lives, pleasure is central to learning, for we must find things like food, water, and sex re­warding in order to survive and pass our genetic material to the next generation. Many of our most important rituals involving prayer, music, dance, and meditation produce a kind of transcendent pleasure that has become deeply ingrained in human cultural practice.

As we do with most powerful forces, however, we also want to regulate pleasure. In cultures around the world we find well-defined ideas and rules about pleasure that have persisted through­out history in any number of forms and variations:
Pleasure should be sought in moderation.

Pleasure must be earned.

Pleasure must be achieved naturally.

Pleasure is transitory.

The denial of pleasure can yield spiritual growth.

Our legal systems, our religions, our educational systems are all deeply concerned with controlling pleasure. We have created detailed rules and customs surrounding sex, drugs, food, alcohol, and even gambling. Jails are bursting with people who have vio­lated laws that proscribe certain forms of pleasure or who profit by encouraging others to do so.