From a leading expert on addiction, a provocative, singularly authoritative history of how sophisticated global businesses have targeted the human brain\'s reward centers, driving us to addictions ranging from oxycodone to Big Macs to Assassin\'s Creed to Snapchat--with alarming social consequences.
They could do it again..
Progressives, nationalists, and traditionalists have made common cause against the purveyors of Addiction before.
Courtwright holds out hope that limbic capitalism can be contained by organized opposition from across the political spectrum.
The internet has brought new addictions: in 2018, the World Health Organization added gaming disorder to its International Classification of Diseases.
Multinational industries, often with the help of complicit governments and criminal organizations, have multiplied and cheapened seductive forms of brain reward, from junk food to pornography.
The business of satisfying desire assumed a more sinister aspect with the rise of long-distance trade, plantation slavery, anonymous cities, large corporations, and sophisticated marketing.
All capitalize on the ancient quest to discover, cultivate, and refine new and habituating pleasures.
We see its success in Purdue Pharma\'s pain pills, in McDonald\'s engineered burgers, and in Tencent video games from China.
The Age of Addiction chronicles the triumph of what Courtwright calls limbic capitalism, the growing network of competitive businesses targeting the brain pathways responsible for feeling, motivation, and long-term memory.
But what can we do to resist temptations that insidiously and deliberately rewire our brains? Nothing, David Courtwright says, unless we understand the history and character of the global enterprises that create and cater to our bad habits.
Sugar can be as habit-forming as cocaine, researchers tell us, and social media apps are hooking our kids.
We live in an age of addiction, from compulsive gaming and shopping to binge eating and opioid abuse.
From a leading expert on addiction, a provocative, singularly authoritative history of how sophisticated global businesses have targeted the human brain\'s reward centers, driving us to addictions ranging from oxycodone to Big Macs to Assassin\'s Creed to Snapchat--with alarming social consequences
