Smoking: The Artificial Passion

by David Krogh

Smoking is a habit fraught with intriguing paradoxes. How can the same cigarettes be relaxing now and a pick-me-up later? Why, in the fact of overwhelming medical advice, do so many people ignore the harmful consequences and continue smoking? David Krogh's book is a lively and informative explanation of what is known about this passion for tobacco.

Genres: Psychology

196 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

David Krogh is a science writer and the director of communications for the Academic Senate of the University of California. While he has written on physics and technology, his main interest is biology, particularly its history and relationship to American culture. Krough has written several biology textbooks and study guides, as well as Smoking: The Artificial Passion.

Reviews

[Nate Samuels · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough examination of the motivations and effects of smoking cigarettes and nicotine. Nicotine is a unique drug in that it can both stimulate and sedate the user, depending on mood, environment, and psyche. Interesting book and very well written, however it is 30 years old which means it was slightly outdated. A large potion of the book was proving nicotine to be addictive, something commonly agreed on now-- and also how commonplace cigarettes where in daily live contributing to why people smoke (they are bored and it gives them something to do). Also interesting was how nicotines subtle effects could be almost more alluring then the dramatic highs of say cocaine or heroin. People want to be in stasis and cigarettes help with this. There was a lot of discussion on whether effects of nicotine come from the benefits of the drug, or the benefits of no longer being ailed by withdrawals from nicotine, as people were smoking a pack a day average in the 90s. My favorite part of this book was when Krogh discussed how extroverts are more liking to smoke as extroverts are characterized as craving more stimulus (sensation-seeking), and being more impulsive and risk-taking. Also impressive was how Krogh speculated that dopamine (newly discovered at the time) would be key to understanding drug addiction, and he was spot on.

Rating: 3.5/5

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one a long time ago, probably in 1997, so the details are hazy, but it's a combination survey of smoking's place in the arts and popular culture and neurochemical explanation of what the nicotine molecule does to various parts of the brain and body. I'd imagine that in between the book's publication (in 1991/92) and now, there might be additional information (I'm actually going to be doing some thesis research into the role of nicotine in pain perception, for instance), but the foundation is solid, and this book impressed me enough to have stuck with me for the intervening 11 years or so.

Nicotine is one of the few chemicals that exerts both sympathetic and parasympathetic effects (for example, smokers aren't kidding when they say that smoking both increases their ability to concentrate, and relaxes them). The parasympathetic side of your nervous system has two classes of receptors, and medical students learn that a good portion of them are "nicotinic." That's right -- human nervous systems are hard-wired to respond to nicotine. So it's not hard to understand the incredible grip this chemical can exert on those who are addicted to it.

Krogh doesn't get bogged down in the science, though. He uses it as a foundation, upon which he builds a very compelling argument for how and why smoking, as a physiological stimulus AND a behavior, ascended to such heights in old Hollywood, the world of rock and roll, and daily American life. Only after this understanding has been reached does Krogh broach the subject of quitting.

Make no mistake, this is not a book about quitting smoking; it is a book about the details of exactly what smoking is. Krogh's clear and engaging prose offers an unusually deep and practical understanding of how addiction happens, and how it might be brought to an end. It's not for nothing that this book was nominated for the L.A. Times Book Prize in the Science & Technology category. The clarity and relative freedom from jargon makes even more sense after a quick Web search, where I find that although he has written extensively on scientific subjects, Krogh holds dual Bachelor's degrees in Journalism and History.

A look at my favorite online bookseller's site shows these on sale for pennies, plus S&H. I might have to pick one up for my shelf. I'd also be very interested in an updated version, considering the Big Tobacco lawsuits of the late 1990s, and the advances in biological neurochemistry.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Krogh must be a former smoker, he seems to appreciate it so much.
Ostensibly--no, really!--this is a book about how bad smoking is. And, yes, the chances for lung and heart disease do increase, though this is not much emphasized. What is handled are various studies done over the decades about the effects of nicotine. This is done carefully: contradictory studies and inconclusive results are discussed along with the author's own, carefully delineated, hypotheses. The picture as a whole, as seen by this biased reader, is quite attractive: nicotine is a wonder drug! It promotes reaction time and measureable 'intelligence', it soothes and it stimulates, it enforces attention, it reduces weight...
Although Krogh includes a final, thoroughly inconclusive and depressing chapter on how to stop smoking, the rest of his book is quite entertaining and informative.

[Jo-Ann Zhou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I forgot the reason why I checked this book out. But since I have it and it's some topices that I'm currently related with (plus, also the most important, it's only about 150 pages), it's no harm to read it.

In general, the book is not very complicated, but not easy to get through fast. With limited pages, the author suppressed a lot of information. So at the end, it's not like a academic book, neither a general non-fiction book.

I guess I won't recommend it to people who want to have an introduction about smoking or cigarettes.

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was OK, if not the rollicking good time promised by the jacket copy. Explains the research basis for believing that smoking is addictive (duh!) and what works to break the pattern.