Satisfaction: The Science of Finding True Fulfillment (Hardcover)

by Gregory Berns (Author) "Read Montague knows how to get in your face..." (more)
Key Phrases: hidden ovulation, septal stimulation, hedonic treadmill, Western States, United States, New Orleans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Berns kicks off this thought-provoking exploration with a simple question, "What do humans want?" He challenges the belief that we are driven primarily to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Rather, Berns finds that "satisfaction comes less from the attainment of a goal and more in what you must do to get there." With a series of experiments using cutting-edge MRI scanning technology, he sees that the interaction of dopamine, the hormone secreted in the brain in anticipation of pleasure, and cortisol, the chemical released when we are under stress, produces the feelings people associate with satisfaction. Berns, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory, ventures into the physical world to prove his thesis, looking at bruised and reddened s&m enthusiasts and ultramarathoners collapsing after a 100-mile run. The author then brings his journey home, confronting issues in his own marriage and the sexual dissatisfaction that so often plagues long-term relationships. His conclusion is simple and compelling: people are wired for novel experience, and when we seek it out, we are satisfied. This will be a highly satisfying read for anyone interested in what gets us out of bed in the morning day after day.
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From Scientific American
Gregory Berns believes that the striatum, a tiny bit of tissue in the lower brain, holds the key to satisfaction in life. Berns, who teaches psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University, is interested in what motivates people to seek out novel experiences as a way to achieve satisfaction--a process, he says, controlled by the striatum. Yet it is surprising and disappointing that such a prolific researcher and author of scholarly articles has chosen to entertain readers with exploits rather than science. Only a few short sections of Satisfaction focus on his own work, so we get little understanding of how neuroscience is done. Explaining brain anatomy, chemistry and psychology to a general audience is a huge challenge--and one Berns does not really meet. Each chapter has a few pages of hard science but then describes at length a visit by Berns to an exotic location or an event that illustrates how people strive to meet extreme challenges as a way of attaining satisfaction. In one chapter, Berns flies to the Sierra Nevadas to observe ultramarathoners run for hours over mountain trails, which he then uses to write about brain metabolism and exhaustion. His other trips--to a volcano in Iceland and to a sadism and masochism club near his home in Atlanta, for example--follow the same pattern. These jaunts reach a high (or low) point when he ends up in a Long Island, N.Y., kitchen, his feet immersed in warm lemon juice and fennel, waiting for a chocolate cake to come out of the oven--as the chef reads Jorge Luis Borges's poetry to him in Spanish. The final chapter is somewhat embarrassing. Berns confesses that while he has jetted around he has left his wife at home with few sources of adult stimulation and two toddlers. In addition, he complains that their sex life has become routine. He finds a solution in the sexual crucible, a program developed by a Colorado marital therapist. The result is a night of lovemaking that pleases him in a way that he equates with an ultramarathoner's high. Some readers may fall in love with Berns's quests for novelty; others may fi nd no satisfaction here.

Jonathan Beard

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080507600X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805076004
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #481,276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual, Diverse & Interesting, September 17, 2005

By	Stephen Axel (Deerfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews

In exploring what creates 'personal satisfaction' this little gem explores a broad range of drivers, from neurochemistry to the laws of econonomics. While its core theme is nailed down to 'novelty produces dopamine--the brain's fuel--that drives satisfaction', it artfully weaves interesting lessons about sex, money, and personal well-being along the way. And even when the author gets a little carried away describing the more technical aspects of neuroscience, it is over in a page or two. If you like a book that makes you think, as well as giving you something new to talk to your friends about, this one is dynamite.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The science of finding out how big Gregory Berns ego is, March 14, 2006

By	Egocheck_now (Michigan) - See all my reviews

The title of this book is totally misleading. First of all Berns is no great writer. He inserts a lot of dialog that sounds faked. But the overall premise, that he's out looking for "True Fulfillment" is ridiculous; he is clearly not doing anything of the kind. What he is doing is repeating over and over and over his basic premise that novelty is what the brain requires. (This is because novelty stimulates the brain in particular ways that result in the release of dopamine, and this happens in a particular part of the brain called the striatum.) Then he goes on these long, boring investigations into the ways in which novelty is found in eating fine foods, sex, running, solving puzzles, etc. This book was BORING. The argument about novelty is not very convincing. He just does not justify the notion that the pursuit of novelty or novelty itself results in "true fulfillment." I mean, you can give all the examples of "novelty" you want, but if you haven't really bothered to show how fulfilling that is, do I care? True fulfillment? Hardly.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and well written account, August 16, 2005

By	magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Part personal memoir part scientific odyssey, this book explores the relationship between pleasure and pain in the brain and how they are mediated and controlled. Ultimately, the author's goal is to explain how we attain true satisfaction in life, not merely physical pleasure, no matter how intense, since that is fleeting.

The author's quest takes him from the labs of distinguished scientists to clubs frequented by the S & M crowd, and to countries like, oddly enough, Iceland, where he describes an interesting genetic study that is taking place. The author does a superb job of discussing the relevant neuroscience without getting too technical, covering the relevant history and scientists who have contributed to various areas of the brain research into pleasure and pain. The account of Dr. Robert Heath's work was fascinating, and that's just one of the many people discussed in the book. Add in some frank discussions of de Sade's and Masoch's lives and works, and how their writings relate to the issue of pain becoming pleasure and you have one of the most interesting brain books for the layman I've encountered in recent years.