The Science of Revenge
Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction--and How to Overcome It
-
-
4.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this definitive book on revenge, psychiatry researcher James Kimmel, Jr. exposes the unseen neurobiological cause of violence—a compulsive desire for retribution—and offers a profound new understanding of human behavior and breakthrough framework for making our lives and communities safer.
“This riveting, science-based exploration of why we feel pleasure from other people’s pain is a must-read.”—Anna Lembke, MD, author of Dopamine Nation
A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read
There is a hidden addiction plaguing humanity right now: revenge. Researchers have identified retaliation in response to real and imagined grievances as the root cause of most forms of human aggression and violence. From vicious tweets to road rage, murder-suicide, and armed insurrection, perpetrators almost always see themselves as victims seeking justice. Chillingly, recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies of the human brain show that harboring a personal grievance triggers revenge desires and activates the neural pleasure and reward circuitry of addiction.
Although this behavior is ancient and seems inevitable, by understanding retaliation and violence as an addictive brain-biological process, we can control deadly revenge cravings and save lives. In The Science of Revenge, Yale violence researcher and psychiatry lecturer James Kimmel, Jr., JD, uncovers the truth behind why we want to hurt the people who hurt us, what happens when it gets out of hand, and how to stop it.
Weaving neuroscience, psychology, sociology, law, and human history with captivating storytelling, Dr. Kimmel reveals the neurological mechanisms and prevalence of revenge addiction. He shines an unsparing light on humanity’s pathological obsession with revenge throughout history; his own struggle with revenge addiction that almost led him to commit a mass shooting; America’s growing addiction to revenge as a special brand of justice; and the startlingly similar addictive behaviors and motivations of childhood bullies, abusive partners, aggrieved employees, sparring politicians, street gang members, violent extremists, mass killers, and tyrannical dictators. He also reveals the amazing, healing changes that take place inside your brain and body when you practice forgiveness. Emphasizing the necessity of proven public health approaches and personal solutions for every level of revenge addiction, he offers urgent, actionable information and novel methods for preventing and treating violence.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The neurological impulses that spur humankind’s perpetual cycles of revenge go under the microscope in James Kimmel Jr.’s enlightening treatise. Research shows that our obsessive need to get even causes a reaction in the brain’s pain-pleasure centers that mirrors drug addiction. As with narcotics, the fix from carrying out revenge is short-lived and demands repeated stimuli to satiate. Kimmel strenuously makes the case that revenge should be handled in much the same manner as other addictions: by concentrating on the underlying causes. Among his strategies for combating those urges is a trial of the mind, where an individual internally acts as prosecutor, defender, and judge to provide perspective on the facts of a conflict. The Science of Revenge persuasively argues for a new approach to the triggers that turn revenge fantasies into deadly tragedies.
