Strong Feelings: Emotion, Addiction, and Human Behavior

by Jon Elster

Emotion and addiction lie on a continuum between simple visceral drives such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire at one end and calm, rational decision making at the other. Although emotion and addiction involve visceral motivation, they are also closely linked to cognition and culture. They thus provide the ideal vehicle for Jon Elster's study of the interrelation between three explanatory approaches to neurobiology, culture, and choice. The book is organized around parallel analyses of emotion and addiction in order to bring out similarities as well as differences. Elster's study sheds fresh light on the generation of human behavior, ultimately revealing how cognition, choice, and rationality are undermined by the physical processes that underlie strong emotions and cravings. This book will be of particular interest to those studying the variety of human motivations who are dissatisfied with the prevailing reductionisms. *Not for sale in Belgium, France, or Switzerland.

Genres: Psychology

266 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 1999

About the author

Jon Elster ، born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian social and political theorist who has authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory. He is also a notable proponent of analytical Marxism, and a critic of neoclassical economics and public choice theory, largely on behavioral and psychological grounds.

In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.

Reviews

[Brayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elster is one of the best social scientists (or philosophers of social science) of this generation. This book looks at the cognitive foundations of emotion and the link to addictive behavior. Elster loves to play with rational choice theory - the idea that people are motivated by narrow concerns for maximizing satisfaction - and this is where I think this book is at its best. I usually don't put my "work books" up on Goodreads, but this is one that I think any college educated person who wants a deeper understanding of how emotion motivates and constrains behavior would find interesting.

[Kyrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the examples and criticisms of other approaches are helpful but Elster's own account seems outdated. I find it weird that a Marxist loves rational choice theory and behaviorism so much but applied to emotions it's even less helpful. He's strangely positive towards Lange's volition/arousal scale of emotion. I also think he's maybe a little too close to the topic of addiction - it's a mix of overly systematic analytic philosophy and bursts of value judgements about drugs and why they're bad.

[Anders Ohm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good introduction to the science of addiction