How Pleasure Works

Slate (June 14, 2010) - Can Science Capture the Complexity of Human Pleasures?

Dear Paul,

After decades of thinking about depression, what a relief it is to turn to pleasure! Paul, I envy you for the time you've devoted to sunny aspects of our humanity.

I'm a practicing psychiatrist, not a research psychologist, but as someone who follows the literature on happiness, I'm convinced that How Pleasure Works is a comprehensive and authoritative summary of, to quote the subtitle, "The New Science of Why We Like What We Like." It's also a gracefully written book and a lot of fun, not least because, as the tour guide, you're great company. Who else, considering the ancient philosophical question of what defines the human race, would venture, "Man is the only animal that likes Tabasco sauce?" [...]