Compass of Pleasure: A Book Review

The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good by David J. Linden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I learned a lot from this text. In fact, the neuroscience basics I learned in this book are now helping me with a very neuroscience-y science fiction book I've just picked up by Catharine Asaro.

This book is actually about more than addictions. It's about brain chemistry and how naturally humans interact with substances and experiences, before the introduction of addiction into the equation. The author writes in a very accessible style - I only got lost in the acronyms and neuron-specific verbs a few times. Most of the time, the author uses very simplified explanations. Illustrations helped me imagine some of the situations he described, while the case studies enhanced the arguments and my understanding of the text. The author's sense of humor adds to the approachability of the text, which is by no means dry or boring. I didn't find all the chapters equally interesting, but they all made some intriguing and thought-provoking arguments.

Things I found difficult about the text included the case studies performed on rats and mice. Normally, I don't care for either of the species, but reading about the lab experiments that are performed on these animals because no ethics advisory/oversight board would ever allow them to be performed on humans, was uncomfortable. Sometimes, the author's sense of humor is jarring, though often I found it funny. Lastly, whether it is this book or neuroscience in general, I found personally challenging the idea that an individual's personality and identity is entirely contained in the chemical, electrical and physical elements of the body.

There was some overlap between the orgasm section of this book and the book by Jared Diamond on the evolution of human sex practices, which I found interesting - they provide slightly different approaches to ultimately similar conclusions concerning the evolution of sex and reproduction in humans and other mammals.

Overall this book seems a very good introduction to neuroscience, pleasure, and addiction. The idea that addiction (to anything, including food, sex, and exercise, among others) is a disease, a sort of chemical imbalance in the brain, is a compelling argument for a different approach to treatment and judgment of addicts and addiction.



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