PREFACE
xiii other than writing: Tyler Cowen, “Self-Constraint Versus Self-Liberation,” Ethics 101, no. 2 (January 1991): 360–73.
CHAPTER 1: A DEMOCRACY OF EXCESS
3 who made it up: David Marquand, “Accidental Hero,” New Statesman, December 2007; http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2007/12/mill-british-john-intellectual.
5 believe that ‘anything goes’: Gary Alan Fine, “Everybody’s Business,” Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2008, 92.
6 half of all U.S. deaths: Daniel Akst, “Losing Control,” Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2009.
6 age, gender, and education level: Robert S. Wilson et al., “Conscientiousness and the Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment,” Archives of General Psychiatry 64, no. 10 (October 1, 2007): 1204–12.
8 overseas was a debt culture: Mark Pittman, “Evil Wall Street Exports Boomed with ‘Fools’ Born to Buy Debt,” Bloomberg.com, October 27, 2008.
11 obtrude virtues noticeably upon others: John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology, (Modern Library, 1957), 5.
13 no different from an animal: Harry G. Frankfurt, The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays (Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18.
13 has no character: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty and the Subjection of Women, ed. Alan Ryan (Penguin, 2007), 69.
13 source of all liberty: Daniel M. Wegner, White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts: Suppression, Obsession, and the Psychology of Mental Control (Viking, 1989), 19.
14 comforts of the moment: Anthony Trollope,The Way We Live Now (Wordsworth, 2004), 16.
15 smaller when at a distance: Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Random House, 1937), 124.
CHAPTER 2: SICKENING EXCESS
18 inactivity and a lousy diet: Jonathan M. Samet, J. Michael McGinnis, and Michael A. Stoto, Estimating the Contributions of Lifestyle-Related Factors to Preventable Death: A Workshop Summary (National Academies Press, 2005), 5.
19 of course, some overlap: Gene M. Heyman, Addiction: A Disorder of Choice (Harvard University Press, 2009), 14.
19 middle-income countries: Alan D. Lopez et al., “Global and Regional Burden of Disease and Risk Factors, 2001: Systematic Analysis of Population Health Data,” Lancet 367, no. 9524 (May 27, 2006): 1751.
19 86 percent of deaths: “Largely Preventable Chronic Diseases Cause 86% of Deaths in Europe,” September 16, 2006, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/52025.php.
20 contrary to them: Quoted in David George, Preference Pollution: How Markets Create the Desires We Dislike. Economics, Cognition, and Society (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 25.
22 preceding twelve months: “Smoking 101 Fact Sheet,” American Lung Association; http://www.healthymissouri.net/cdrom/lesson3b/smoking%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf.
22 white-knuckle it: Julia Hansen, A Life in Smoke: A Memoir (Free Press, 2006), 39.
22 global warming or self-control: Juliet Eilperin, “Climate Shift Tied to 150,000 Fatalities,” Washington Post, November 17, 2005; “WHO | Tobacco Key Facts,” n.d.; http://www.who .int/topics/tobacco/facts/en/index.html.
26 soared to 49 gallons: Jane Allshouse, “Indicators: In the Long Run—April 2004,” Amber Waves: The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, April 2004, U.S. Department of Agriculture, http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April04/Indicators/inthelongrun.htm.
26 fullest capacity for self-control: Deirdre Barrett, Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), 52–53.
26 diet or exercise: Quoted in Linda A. Johnson, “Study: Over Half of Americans on Chronic Medicines,” Associated Press, May 14, 2008, as published on signonsandiego.com.
27 diabetes and cardiovascular disease: Earl S. Ford, Wayne H. Giles, and Ali H. Mokdad, “Increasing Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome Among U.S. Adults,” Diabetes Care 27, no. 10 (October 2004): 2444–49.
27 perilously close to ours: “Number of Persons with Diagnosed Diabetes, United States, 1980–2007,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Margie Mason, “China’s Diabetes Epidemic,” Time, March 25, 2010.
28 another form of self-control: B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (Free Press, 1953), 232.
28 suicide by other means: "Guns and Death," Harvard Injury Control Research Center; http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/index. html.
29 idea of suicide on its owner: Quoted in Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (Scribner, 2001), 255.
29 on the Taft remained unchanged: Scott Anderson, “The Urge to End It All,” New York Times, July 6, 2008.
30 you’ll take your own life: Aurelie Raust et al., “Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Patients with Suicidal Behavior,” Psychological Medicine 37, no. 3 (March 2007): 411–19.
30 more cocaine and alcohol: Dani Brunner and Rene Hen, “Insights into the Neurobiology of Impulsive Behavior from Serotonin Receptor Knockout Mice,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 836, no. 1 (December 1997): 81–105.
30 pathological gambling, and kleptomania: Richard M. Restak, Brainscapes: An Introduction to What Neuroscience Has Learned About the Structure, Function, and Abilities of the Brain (Hyperion Books, 1996), 117.
CHAPTER 3: ON HAVING YOURSELF COMMITTED
33 to go against his orders: “Krusty Love,” SpongeBob SquarePants, September 6, 2002, reported in Internet Movie Database; www.imdb.com/title/tt206512/episodes.
33 basis of a TV show, The Cleaner: Mandy Stadtmiller, “Nixed Drink,” New York Post, December 16, 2008.
34 not to give it back to you: Solomon, The Noonday Demon, 275.
35 man without character: Quoted in Janet Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible (Oxford University Press, 1993), 172.
36 immediately to his boss by GPS: Tyler Cowen, Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist (Dutton, 2007), 170.
37 she knew the combination all along: Michael Shnayerson, “Something Happened at Anne’s!” Vanity Fair, August 2007, 128.
37 eat every last crumb: Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Together (Harper & Row, 1972).
38 in any shape or form: Quoted in Ray Monk, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (Penguin, 1991), 171.
38 clean dress means an unclean soul: Katherine Ashenburg, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History (North Point Press, 2007), 59.
39 no safety for us except in victory: Thomas C. Schelling, Strategies of Commitment and Other Essays (Harvard University Press, 2006), 1.
40 strong anti-Reform statement: Quoted in Adam Gopnik, “Man of Fetters: Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale,” New Yorker, December 8, 2008.
41 even for a moment a debt: Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows (New York Review of Books Classics, 2002), 21.
41 Buffon wrote: Richard Conniff, “Cultured Traveler: Seeking the Comte de Buffon— Forgotten, Yes. But Happy Birthday Anyway,” New York Times, December 30, 2007.
43 but was later edited: Whitney Matheson, “A true tale of tattoo envy,” USA Today, July 30, 2003.
44 100,000 of them removed annually: Natasha Singer, “Erasing Tattoos, Out of Regret or for a New Canvas,” New York Times, June 17, 2007.
CHAPTER 4: THE COST OF GOOD INVENTIONS
46 amounts of effort: Thomas K. McCraw, Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (Harvard University Press, 2007), 9.
49 adults considered themselves addicted to TV: Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Television Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor,” Scientific American, February 2002.
49 long-term malaise: Quoted in Neil Tickner, “Unhappy People Watch TV; Happy People Read/Socialize,” press release, University of Maryland, November 14, 2008.
49 rocketed to 62 million: Brink Lindsey, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture (Collins, 2007), 34.
51 two hours is all people owned up to: “Americans Waste More Than 2 Hours a Day at Work,” Salary.com, July 11, 2005; Salary.com/sitesearch/layoutscripts/sisl_display.asp?filename-&path-destinationsearch/par485_body.html.
CHAPTER 5: THE PERILS OF PROSPERITY
55 devoured the mother: Quoted in Stephen Innes, Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England (W. W. Norton & Company, 1995), 26.
55 Before he was laid off: Douglas Belkin, “A Bank Run Teaches the ‘Plain People’ about the Risks of Modernity.” Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2009; http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB124640811360577075.html#printMode.
56 wanted their money back: Ibid.
57 sixfold increase in just five years: Mark Landler, “Outside U.S., Credit Cards Tighten Grip,” New York Times, August 10, 2008.
58 callous ‘cash payment’: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, ed. Gareth Stedman Jones, trans. Samuel Moore (Penguin Classics, 2002), 222.
60 effect of an age of individualism: William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (Pantheon Books, 1993), 3.
60 America of the 1880s and 1890s: Charles R. Morris, The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy (Times Books, 2005), 177.
62 dedicated to gluttony and vice: Daniel M. Fox, The Discovery of Abundance: Simon N. Patten and the Transformation of Social Theory (Cornell University Press, 1967), 93.
62 with a hoard of mobilized wealth: Quoted in Leach, Land of Desire, 235.
64 little un-American: Quoted in Brink, The Age of Abundance, 73.
64 feverish and unquenchable desire: Ibid., 61.
66 romantic impatient with the status quo: John Patrick Diggins, Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History (W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), xvii.
66 led America into temptation: Ibid., 5.
66 a million in 2008 alone: Data from New York Times, July 20, 2008, A15; Christian E. Weller. “Drowning in Debt: America’s Middle Class Falls Deeper in Debt as Income Growth Slows and Costs Climb,” Center for American Progress, May 2006.
67 reckless mortgages: Edmund L.Andrews,“My Personal Credit Crisis,” The New York Times Magazine, May 17, 2009.
68 the other to the ‘lottery class’: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, “A Nation in Debt,” American Interest, August 2008.
CHAPTER 6: SELF-CONTROL AND SOCIAL CHANGE
71 we rarely encountered women: Tony Judt, blog entry, http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/mar/11/girls-girls-girls.
71 lifestyles and individual self-expression: Lindsey Brink, The Age of Abundance, 5.
72 his private interests: Quoted in Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (Basic Books, 2005), 133.
73 new orientation to personal life: Eli Zaretsky, Secrets of the Soul: A Social and Cultural History of Psychoanalysis (Knopf, 2004), 9.
74 cohabiting unions: Andrew J. Cherlin, “American Marriage in the Early Twenty-First Century,” The Future of Children 15, no. 2 (fall 2005), 46.
76 because they could lose them: Quoted in Jon Elster, Ulysses Unbound: Studies in Rationality, Precommitment, and Constraints (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 14.
77 his or her assets: Mary Pilon, “Should I Get a Prenup?” The Juggle, WSJ.com, July 6, 2010; http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2010/07/06/to-prenup-or-not-to-prenup.
77 and sleep less efficiently: John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008).
78 resist harmful foods and intoxicants: Ibid.
78 frightfully alone: Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (Vintage Books, 1961), 508.
78 better and happier life: Darrin M. McMahon, “The Pursuit of Happiness in Perspective,” Cato.org, April 8, 2007; http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/04/08/darrin-m-mcmahon/the-pursuit-of-happiness-in-perspective.
80 society functions so differently: Quoted in Sarah Bronson, “No Sex in the City,” Jewish Week, August 3, 2001.
CHAPTER 7: THE GREEK WAY
83 a slave instead of a free person: Quoted in John J. Winkler, The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece (Routledge, 1990), 50.
83 either his appetites or his passions: George William Cox, Tales from Greek Mythology (Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1863), 117.
84 control should be exercised: Helen North, Sophrosyne: Self-Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature (Cornell University Press, 1966), 176.
84 individualism and self-assertion: Ibid., 258.
84 sometimes rendered as “self-discipline”: Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee (Penguin Classics, 2003), 134ff.
84 across the whole scale: Ibid., 136.
85 obedience to their rulers: Ibid., 81.
85 desires to wax to the uttermost: Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Random House, 1937), 551.
85 symbolizes their innermost aspirations: North, Sophrosyne, 14–15.
86 and most everything was: James N. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 213–18.
86 much greater exercise of restraint: North, Sophrosyne, 12.
87 during which he was not in love: Eva Cantarella, Bisexuality in the Ancient World, trans. Cormac O Cuilleanain (Yale University Press, 2002), 55.
87 frequently dragged about by desire: E. J. Lemmon, “Moral Dilemmas,” Philosophical Review 71, no. 2 (April 1962): 139–58.
88 the physical and the moral question: Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct, 19.
89 not an act but a habit: Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (Simon & Schuster, 1961), 98.
89 victory over self: William S. Walsh, International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations from the Literature of the World (John C. Winston, 1908); attributes this line to Aristotle via Srobaeus.
90 erroneous than the other: Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004), 48.
91 neither does one day: Ibid., 16.
91 voluntary: Ibid., 61.
91 contributes nothing to it: Ibid., 50.
92 they acted more in keeping with it: Juliano Laran, “Choosing Your Future: Temporal Distance and the Balance between Self-Control and Indulgence,” Journal of Consumer Research, April 2010.
92 fits of madness: Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. David Ross (Oxford University Press, 2009), 122.
93 responsible for our dispositions: Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Thomson, 65.
93 care for their appearance: Ibid., 63.
94 all the evil instincts taken together: Jennifer L. Geddes, “Blueberries, Accordions, and Auschwitz: The Evil of Thoughtlessness,” Culture, Fall 2008.
95 mouthful more bread than meat: Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes, 314.
CHAPTER 8: THE MARSHMALLOW TEST
97 my Manhattan apartment:Walter Mischel, A History of Psychology in Autobiography, eds. G. Lindzey and W. M. Runyan (American Psychological Association, 2007), 231.
97 rum bottles passing: Ibid., 240.
97 without ever enjoying today: Ibid.
98 found no clear pattern: W. Curtis Banks et al., “Delayed Gratification in Blacks: A Critical Review,” Journal of Black Psychology 9, no. 2 (February 1, 1983): 43–56.
98 by the experimenter’s race: Bonnie R. Strickland, “Delay of Gratification as a Function of Race of the Experimenter,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 22, no. 1 (1972): 108–12.
100 interacting and changing each other: “Mischel’s Marshmallows,” Radiolab, WNYC, March 9, 2009.
100 waited longest before chiseling: Walter Mischel and Carol Gilligan, “Delay of Gratification, Motivation for the Prohibited Gratification, and Responses to Temptation,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 69, no. 4 (October 1964): 411–17.
100 concurrent associations are extensive: Walter Mischel, Yuichi Shoda, and Monica Rodriguez, “Delay of Gratification in Children,” Science 244, no. 4907 (May 1989): 934.
101 arrive in the department mail: Mischel, A History of Psychology in Autobiography, 243.
101 I still put into quotes: Ibid., 246.
103 deployed during the delay interval: Ibid., 247.
103 instant responses to stimuli: Walter Mischel and Ozlem Ayduk, “Willpower in a Cognitive-Affective Processing System: The Dynamics of Delay of Gratification,” in Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs, eds., Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory, and Applications (Guilford Press, 2004), 109.
103 cloud floating in the sky: Carey Goldberg, “Marshmallow Temptations, Brain Scans Could Yield Vital Lessons in Self-Control,” Boston Globe, October 22, 2008.
104 when they applied to college: Mischel, Shoda, and Rodriguez, “Delay of Gratification in Children,” 934.
105 less than nine minutes: Yuichi Shoda, Walter Mischel, and Philip K. Peake, “Predicting Adolescent Cognitive and Self-Regulatory Competencies from Preschool Delay of Gratification: Identifying Diagnostic Conditions,” Developmental Psychology 26, no. 6 (November 1990): 980.
106 road to building academic achievement: Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents,” Psychological Science 16, no. 12 (December 2005): 939–44.
106 than to achievement or aptitude tests: Angela Lee Duckworth and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Self-Discipline Gives Girls the Edge: Gender in Self-Discipline, Grades, and Achievement Test Scores,” Journal of Educational Psychology 98, no. 1 (February 2006): 198–208.
107 used in college admissions decisions: Raymond N. Wolfe and Scott D. Johnson, “Personality as a Predictor of College Performance,” Educational and Psychological Measurement 55, no. 2 (April 1, 1995): 177–85.
107 risk of aggressive behavior and delinquency: Catrin Finkenauer, Rutger Engels, and Roy Baumeister, “Parenting Behaviour and Adolescent Behavioural and Emotional Problems: The Role of Self-Control,” International Journal of Behavioral Development 29, no. 1 (January 2005): 59.
107 smoking tobacco, and smoking marijuana: Baumeister and Vohs, eds., Handbook of Self-Regulation, 548.
109 how to exercise self-control: Alex Spiegel,“Creative Play Makes for Kids in Control,” National Public Radio, February 28, 2008.
CHAPTER 9: THE SEESAW STRUGGLE
110 is always true: Quoted in John Carey, The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1939 (St. Martin’s Press, 1993), 75.
110 and that’s not good: Quoted in Tyler Kepner, “Rivera’s a Closer with an Open Heart,” New York Times, March 9, 2008.
112 his polished surface: Horace and Persius, Horace: Satires and Epistles; Persius: Satires, trans. Niall Rudd (Penguin Classics, 2005), 120.
113 ethically rationalized pattern of life: Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, eds. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich (University of California Press, 1978), 561.
114 in a society of Puritans: Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct, 5.
115 individual and collective well-being: Innes, Creating the Commonwealth, 30; on Puritan literacy, see Daniels, 27ff.
116 libels against the best government: Innes, Creating the Commonwealth, 159.
116 something approaching four to one: Ibid., 145.
117 minimize the former: James Q. Wilson, The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families (HarperCollins, 2002), 207.
117 effective in an urban society: Peter N. Stearns, Battleground of Desire: The Struggle for Self-Control in Modern America (New York University Press, 1999), 43.
CHAPTER 10: LET MY PEOPLE GO
121 don't even know it: Quoted in Mark Edmundson, The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days (Bloomsbury USA, 2007), 32.
121 victory over the other: Carol Tavris, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion (Touchstone, 1989), 41.
122 it sends an obsession: Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier (Modern Library, 2004), 70.
122 steamship for the trip: Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), 454.
123 specialist in the world: Ibid.
123 Freud had become a household name: Ibid.
123 American medicine and culture: Eric Caplan, Mind Games: American Culture and the Birth of Psychotherapy (University of California Press, 2001), 9.
125 adherents he found wanting or disloyal: Gay, Freud, 316.
125 Waldinger’s words, ‘by the clock’: Ibid., 157.
126 improvisatory sort of place: Ibid.
126 without choking: Quoted in Evan J. Elkin, “More Than a Cigar,” Cigar Aficionado, Winter 1994.
127 facilitation of my self-control: Quoted in Scott Wilson, “Dying for a Smoke: Freudian Addiction and the Joy of Consumption,” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 7, no. 2 (2002): 161–73.
127 intellectuals committed suicide: William M. Johnston, The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938 (University of California Press, 1983), 174.
128 cover under its name: Sigmund Freud, The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (W. W. Norton &Company, 1995), 33.
129 some acknowledgement of self-control: Willard Gaylin, “Knowing Good and Doing Good,” Hastings Center Report 24, no. 3 (June 1994): 37.
130 too-severe self-discipline: Robert R. Holt, “Freud’s Impact on Modern Morality,” Hastings Center Report 10, no. 2 (April 1980): 38-45.
130 acts of judgment: Freud, The Freud Reader, ed. Gay, 18.
131 there ego shall be: Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, trans. James Strachey (W. W. Norton & Company, 1965), 100.
CHAPTER 11: THE INTIMATE CONTEST
132 an equal struggle: Quoted in A. W. Price, Mental Conflict (Routledge, 1995), 183.
134 who is controlling whom: Skinner, Science and Human Behavior, 229.
137 from another person: Quoted in Jon Gertner, “The Futile Pursuit of Happiness,” New York Times Magazine, September 7, 2003.
137 managers of a firm: Richard H. Thaler and H. M. Shefrin, “An Economic Theory of Self-Control,” Journal of Political Economy 89, no. 2 (April 1981): 392–406.
137 both master and subject: Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee, 134–35.
137 worst of all defeats: Quoted in Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, trans. Robert Hurley (Vintage, 1986), 68–69.
139 express volitional deliberation: William James, The Principles of Psychology (Henry Holt and Company, 1890), 122.
140 yielding to whip and spur: Plato, The Dialogues of Plato, 257.
142 relies on the prefrontal cortex: Russell Meares, “The Contribution of Hughlings Jackson to an Understanding of Dissociation,” American Journal of Psychiatry 156, no. 12 (December 1, 1999): 1850–55.
142 it’s a bargaining process: George Ainslie, “Précis of Breakdown of Will,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, no. 5 (2005): 637.
143 about my further future: Derek Parfit, Reasons and Persons (Clarendon Press, 1987), 313.
CHAPTER 12: THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM
146 its own decisions: Quoted in Steve Clark, “ ‘Get Out As Early As You Can’: Larkin’s Sexual Politics,” In Philip Larkin, ed. Stephen Regan (Palgrave Macmillan, 1997), 104.
147 doctors operated yet again: Jeffrey M. Burns and Russell H. Swerdlow, “Right Orbitofrontal Tumor with Pedophilia Symptom and Constructional Apraxia Sign,” Archives of Neurology 60, no. 3 (March 1, 2003): 437–40.
147 neurology of morality here: Charles Choi, “Brain Tumour Causes Uncontrollable Paedophilia,” New Scientist, October 21,2002.
147 defendant who had prostate cancer: Nicholas Thompson, “My Brain Made Me Do It,” Legal Affairs, February 2006.
148 equipment for the old life: Quoted in George Loewenstein, Scott Rick, and Jonathan D. Cohen. “Neuroeconomics,” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (2008).
148 stone-age mind: Leda Cosmides and John Tooby. “Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer,” Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California at Santa Barbara, n.d.; http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html.
149 people must make every day: Mark R. Leary, The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life (Oxford University Press, 2004), 180.
149 what we need to, and delay gratification: John Paul Wright and Kevin M. Beaver, “Do Parents Matter in Creating Self-Control in Their Children? A Genetically Informed Test of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s Theory of Low Self-Control,” Criminology 43, no. 4 (November 2005): 1175.
152 proximate to the reward: Steven Schultz, “Study: Brain Battles Itself over Short-Term Rewards, Long-Term Goals,” Princeton University, October 14, 2004; http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/04/q4/1014-brain.htm.
152 talk to one another: Ibid.
153 has more dramatic coloring: This discussion generally follows Deirdre Barrett, Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010).
153 low level of self-control strength: Leary, The Curse of the Self, 180–81.
155 no longer Gage: Ibid., 180.
156 the prod of some environmental demand: Daniel R. Weinberger, Brita Elvevåg, and Jay N. Giedd, “The Adolescent Brain: A Work in Progress” (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, June 2005), 2–3; http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/BRAIN.pdf.
156 characterized by poor impulse control: Jane F. Banfield et al., “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Self-Regulation,” in Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs, eds., Handbook of Self-Regulation: Research, Theory and Applications (Guilford Press, 2004), 62ff.
158 good at certain inhibitory tasks: This whole discussion is indebted to Weinberger, Elvevåg, and Giedd, “The Adolescent Brain,” 2–3.
159 persistence, responsibility, and dependability: Scott Shane, Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life (Oxford University Press, 2010), 26, 157.
160 spiritual muscle: J. C. B. Gosling, Weakness of the Will (Routledge, 1990), 163.
CHAPTER 13: SELF-CONTROL, FREE, WILL, AND OTHER OXYMORONS
161 has a mind to do: Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Henry Holt and Company, 1916), 68.
161 they are determined: Benedict de Spinoza, Ethics, trans. Edwin Curley (Penguin Classics, 2005), 53.
162 they have little voluntary control: Quoted in Ibid., 2-3.
164 physical cleansing: Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist, “Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing,” Science 313, no. 5792 (September 8, 2006): 1451–52.
165 influenced by environmental cues: Quoted in Foreman, “Environmental Cues Affect How Much You Eat,” Boston Globe, August 18, 2008.
165 by example, not by choice: Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays of Montaigne, trans. Donald Murdoch Frame (Stanford University Press, 1965), 648.
165 will automatically eat more calories: Quoted in Foreman, “Environmental Cues Affect How Much You Eat.”
166 Halloween last night ’cause: Wegner, White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts, 3.
167 does make it implausible: Quoted in Robert Lee Hotz, “Get Out of Your Own Way,” Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2008.
170 hewed closer to its phenotype: Espen Walderhaug et al., “Interactive Effects of Sex and 5-HTTLPR on Mood and Impulsivity During Tryptophan Depletion in Healthy People,” Biological Psychiatry 62, no. 6 (September 15, 2007): 593–99.
170 increased risk was 30 percent: Emad Salib and Mario Cortina-Borja, “Effect of Month of Birth on the Risk of Suicide,” British Journal of Psychiatry 188, no. 5 (May 1, 2006): 416–22.
171 about 60 percent heritable: Tinca J. C. Polderman et al., “Genetic Analyses of Teacher Ratings of Problem Behavior in 5-Year-Old Twins,” Australian Academic Press, February 20, 2006; http://www.atypon-link.com/AAP/doi/abs/10.1375/twin.9.1.122.
173 given neutral texts to read: Kathleen D. Vohs and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating,” Psychological Science 19, no. 1 (January 2008): 49–54.
174 believe in free will: Theo Anderson,”One Hundred Years of Pragmatism,” Wilson Quarterly (Summer 2007).
CHAPTER 14: ODYSSEUS AND THE PIGEONS
177 our case was lost: B. F. Skinner, “Pigeons in a Pelican,” American Psychologist 15, no. 1 (January 1960): 28–37.
178 people we would like to be: Mary Harrington Hall, “Best of the Century: Interview with B.F. Skinner,” Psychology Today, September 1967; http://www.psychologytoday.com/print/22682.
178 of which behavior is a function: B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (Free Press, 1953), 228.
178 hard work is actually effortless: William T. O’Donohue and Kyle E. Ferguson, The Psychology of B. F. Skinner (Sage, 2001), 170.
180 the top and the bottom: Richard J. Herrnstein, “I.Q.,” Atlantic Monthly, September 1971.
182 object of desire in the mind: The discussion here generally follows the wonderful roundup provided by Shane Frederick, George Loewenstein, and Ted O’Donoghue in “Time Discounting and Time Preference,” Journal of Economic Literature 40, no. 2 (June 2002): 351–401. John Rae is quoted in this paper.
183 health is the greater good: Quoted in George Ainslie, Picoeconomics: The Interaction of Successive Motivational States within the Person (Cambridge University Press, 1992), 57.
182 on a diminished scale: Frederick, Loewenstein, and O’Donoghue, “Time Discounting and Time Preference,” 354.
183 a single parameter, the discount rate: Frederick, Loewenstein, and O’Donoghue, “Time Discounting and Time Preference,” 351.
184 more deeply than larger sums: Stuart Vyse, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On to Their Money (Oxford University Press, 2007), 81.
185 the local hierarchy of dominance: Jeffrey R. Stevens and David W. Stephens, “Patience,” Current Biology 18, no. 1 (January 8, 2008): R11–R12.
186 had chosen the annual payments: John T. Warner and Saul Pleeter, “The Personal Discount Rate: Evidence from Military Downsizing Programs,” American Economic Review 91, no. 1 (March 2001): 33–53.
188 near and contiguous: David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (Oxford University Press, 2000), 343.
191 chastity and continence, but not yet: Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin (Penguin, 1961), 169.
CHAPTER 15: CRIMES OF PASSION
192 throw the fine china: Quoted in Susan D. Rozelle, “Controlling Passion: Adultery and the Provocation Defense,” Rutgers Law Journal 37, no. 197 (2005): 221.
194 offender versatility is overwhelming: Michael R. Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime (Stanford University Press, 1990), 91.
194 die at an early age: Ibid., 92.
194 likely to engage in them: Ibid., 14.
195 personal impulse management: Holt, “Freud’s Impact on Modern Morality.”
195 hospitalized for psychiatric illnesses: Gottfredson and Hirschi, A General Theory of Crime, 93.
195 low self-control is immense: Ibid., 91.
195 predicted crime and similar behaviors: Travis C. Pratt and Francis T. Cullen, “The Empirical Status of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime: A Meta-Analysis,” Criminology 38, no. 3 (August 2000): 931–64.
196 happen to be male: Velmer S. Burton et al., “Gender, Self-Control, and Crime,” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 35, no. 2 (May 1, 1998): 123–47.
196 increase the chances of victimization: Christopher Schreck, Eric Stewart, and Bonnie Fisher, “Self-Control, Victimization, and Their Influence on Risky Lifestyles: A Longitudinal Analysis Using Panel Data,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 22, no. 4 (December 2006): 319–40.
198 mistake their instructions: Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, 180–81.
198 make myself count to ten: Elster, Ulysses Unbound, 13.
198 confronted with his wife’s dishonor: Cynthia Lee, Murder and the Reasonable Man: Passion and Fear in the Criminal Courtroom (New York University Press, 2003), 20–21.
199 adultery with the wife: Ibid., 22.
199 provoked into a heat of passion: Ibid., 25.
200 manslaughter instead of murder: Ibid., 38–39.
200 the prevailing scholarship assume: Rozelle, “Controlling Passion,” 199.
200 anger against his servants: Elster, Ulysses Unbound, 14.
200 lose your temper: Iggeres Haramban and Avrohom Chaim Feuer, A Letter for the Ages: The Ramban’s Ethical Letter with an Anthology of Contemporary Rabbinic Expositions (Mesorah Publications, 1989), 28, 31.
201 Bettelheim believed in it: Tavris, Anger, The Misunderstood Emotion (Touchstone, 1989), 45.
201 softens our emotions: Quoted in Tavris, Anger, 36.
202 provocation: John E. Carr and Eng Kong Tan, “In Search of the True Amok: Amok as Viewed Within the Malay Culture,” American Journal of Psychiatry 133, no. 11 (November 1, 1976): 1295–99.
202 outbursts declined dramatically: John E. Carr and Eng Kong Tan, “In Search of the True Amok: Amok as Viewed Within the Malay Culture,” American Journal of Psychiatry 133, no. 11 (November 1, 1976): 1295–99.
CHAPTER 16: ADDICTION, COMPULSION, AND CHOICE
203 What’s hard is to decide: “The Comeback Kid,” The Oprah Winfrey Show, November 23, 2004. http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Comeback-Kid/slide_number/3.
204 and of the public in general: Gary Greenberg, The Noble Lie: When Scientists Give the Right Answers for the Wrong Reasons (Wiley, 2008), 12.
204 hereditary, family, and contagious diseases: Gene M. Heyman, “Drug of Choice,” Boston College Magazine, Fall 2009.
207 life grew chaotic and brutal: John C. Burnham, Bad Habits: Drinking, Smoking, Taking Drugs, Gambling, Sexual Misbehavior, and Swearing in American History (New York University Press, 1993), 52.
207 the center of the spiritual order: Jackson Lears, Something for Nothing: Luck in America (Viking, 2003), 60.
207 have had some success: Heyman, Addiction, 105–6.
209 function of its consequences: Ibid., 104.
210 hypoactivity of the prefrontal cortex: W. Van Den Brink, “The Role of Impulsivity, Response Inhibition and Delay Discounting in Addictive Behaviors,” European Psychiatry 22, no. 1 (March 2007): S29.
CHAPTER 17: TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY
213 work before getting a reward: “Brain’s Reward Circuitry Revealed in Procrastinating Primates,” National Institute of Mental Health, August 10, 2004, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2004/brains-reward-circuitry-revealed-in-procrastinating-primates .shtml.
214 known to psychologists as conscientiousness: Dianne M. Tice, Ellen Bratslavsky, and Roy F. Baumeister, “Emotional Distress Regulation Takes Precedence over Impulse Control: If You Feel Bad, Do It!” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80, no. 1 (2001): 61.
215 warning voice of conscience: Rebecca Shannonhouse, ed., Under the Influence: The Literature of Addiction (Modern Library, 2003), 41.
216 their mood could be altered: Tice, Bratslavsky, and Baumeister, “Emotional Distress Regulation Takes Precedence over Impulse Control,” 63.
216 procrastination is neurotic indeed: Ibid., 61.
217 live up to planned schedules: Quoted in Markus K. Brunnermeier, Filippos Papakonstantinou, and Jonathan A. Parker, “An Economic Model of the Planning Fallacy,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 14228 (August 2008).
217 faster than they had predicted: Ibid.
219 called a ‘procrastination field’: John Sabini and Maury Silver, Moralities of Everyday Life (Oxford University Press, 1982), 135–36.
219 intervals that are irrationally short: Ibid., 133.
220 and use birth control: June P. Tangney and Ronda L. Dearing, Shame and Guilt (Guilford Press, 2002), 134–35.
221 powerful moral emotional factor: Ibid., 138.
221 more influenced by environment: Ibid., 154.
221 the variance in procrastination is genetic: Piers Steel, “The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure,” Psychological Bulletin 133, no. 1 (January 2007): 67.
222 an input like time invested: Lisa Belkin, “Time Wasted? Perhaps It’s Well Spent,” New York Times, May 31, 2007.
222 arrangement of his time: Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter (Vintage Books, 1961), 515.
224 labours of a spasmodic Hercules: Quoted in Irving Wallace, “Self-Control Techniques of Famous Novelists,” Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 10, no. 3 (Fall 1977).
225 wrestled constantly with his conscience: McCraw, Prophet of Innovation, 221.
225 free, to quote Sartre: David Glenn, “Falling Behind? Try Shame, Fear, and Greed,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 27, 2009.
225 when the mood struck them: Robert Boice, “Contingency Management in Writing and the Appearance of Creative Ideas: Implications for the Treatment of Writing Blocks,” Behaviour Research and Therapy 21, no. 5 (1983): 537–43.
226 arrest, Steiner, house arrest: Schelling, Strategies of Commitment and Other Essays, 72.
CHAPTER 18: CUTTING LOOSE
227 life without self-control: Quoted in Martin Henley, Teaching Self-Control: A Curriculum for Responsible Behavior (National Educational Service, 1997), 1.
228 Gimme a double scotch: Don Marquis, The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel (Doubleday, 1950), xxiii.
228 moderation than does folly: Michel de Montaigne, Michel de Montaigne: The Complete Essays, trans. M. A. Screech (Penguin Classics, 1993), 948.
228 in every time and culture: Oliver W. Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (Knopf, 1995), 64.
231 on something like groceries: Ran Kivetz and Itamar Simonson, “Self-Control for the Righteous: Toward a Theory of Precommitment to Indulgence,” Journal of Consumer Research: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 29, issue 2, p. 199–217.
232 hidden director of the experience: Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination (Pantheon, 1988), 262.
233 many more have such fantasies: June M. Reinisch and Ruth Beasley, The Kinsey Institute New Report On Sex (St. Martin’s Press, 1991), 162.
233 a time when individuality flourished: Roy F. Baumeister, Escaping the Self: Alcoholism, Spirituality, Masochism, and Other Flights from the Burden of Selfhood (Basic Books, 1991), 120ff.
235 when he unscrewed it: Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist (Ballantine Books, 2002), 273.
235 the indefinitely postponed splurge: Frederick, Loewenstein, and O’Donoghue, “Time Discounting and Time Preference,” 359.
237 any revolt insipid: Quoted in Elster, Ulysses Unbound, 268.
237 culture of excess: Stearns, Battleground of Desire, 27.
CHAPTER 19: GOVERNMENT AND SELF-GOVERNMENT
239 and without assistance: Quoted in John A. Bargh, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Annette Lee-Chai, Kimberly Barndollar, and Roman Trötschel, “The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81, no. 6 (December 2001): 1014–27.
239 sufficient warrant: Mill, On Liberty and the Subjection of Women, 16.
240 potentially dangerous, and irreversible: Quoted in Debra Satz, Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets (Oxford University Press, 2010), 87.
240 violence of the passions: Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Cambridge University Press, 2002), 31.
241 against their own: Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, 345.
242 start by refusing: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Penguin Classics, 2003), 262.
243 in the day of their frenzy: Frederick, Loewenstein, and O’Donoghue, “Time Discounting and Time Preference.”
244 on camera many times daily: “Britain Is ‘Surveillance Society’,” BBC News, November 2, 2006; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6108496.stm.
247 guard against accidents: Mill, On Liberty and the Subjection of Women, 109.
249 ability to exercise self-control: Robert Crowe, “Drugs, Surgery May Temper Drive, but Sexual Interest Won’t ‘Normalize’,” Houston Chronicle, May 10, 2005.
249 bogs and precipices: Ian Carter, “Positive and Negative Liberty,” in Edward N. Zalta, ed., Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2007; http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/ win2007/entries/liberty-positive-negative/.
250 more there must be without: Quoted in Gertrude Himmelfarb, The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (Knopf, 1995), 51.
CHAPTER 20: BE YOUR OWN GODFATHER 251 I said from her breasts: Don DeLillo, White Noise (Penguin,1999), 282.
256 ‘It’s not my money.’ It works: Farah Stockman, “Q and A with Daryl Collins: Financial Secrets of the World’s Poorest People,” Boston Globe, May 17, 2009.
256 to keep themselves away: David I. Laibson et al., “Self-Control and Saving for Retirement,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1998, no. 1 (1998): 91.
258 and the commitment device: Stuart Rutherford, The Poor and Their Money (Oxford University Press, 2001), 13.
258 bet it on a number: Ivan Light, “Numbers Gambling Among Blacks: A Financial Institution,” American Sociological Review 42, no. 6 (December 1977): 892–904.
259 a great many employees: Brigitte C. Madrian and Dennis F. Shea, “The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 66, no. 4 (November 2001).
CHAPTER 21: CARPE DIEM
261 and curb your own: Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1999), 253.
263 it is too continually tense: Montaigne, The Complete Essays of Montaigne, trans. Donald Murdoch Frame (Stanford University Press, 1965), 638.
264 better selves is biologically costly: Quoted in Hara Estroff Marano, “Building a Better Self,” Psychology Today, June 2007.
264 regions of prefrontal cortex: Joshua D. Greene and Joseph M. Paxton, “Patterns of Neural Activity Associated with Honest and Dishonest Moral Decisions,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 30 (July 28, 2009): 12506-11.
265 chaff in the blast: William James, “The Laws of Habit,” in Talks to Teachers on Psychology; and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals (Henry Holt and Company, 1925).
266 by more than 70 percent: Roy F. Baumeister, Losing Control: How and Why People Fail at Self-Regulation (Academic Press, 1994), 140.
266 terrible risk to our self-control: Howard Rachlin, The Science of Self-Control (Harvard University Press, 2000), 67.
267 be supportive of those changes: Quoted in Anita Huslin, “Are You Really Ready to Clean Up Your Act?” Washington Post, January 2, 2007.
270 without taking any harmful action: Jason Zweig, “How to Handle a Market Gone Mad,” Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2008.
272 decisive moments: John A. Bargh and Tanya L. Chartrand, “The Unbearable Automaticity of Being,” American Psychologist 54, no. 7 (July 1999): 462–79.
272 obedience to reason becomes habitual: Quoted in Helen North, Sophrosyne: Self-Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature (Cornell University Press, 1966), 203.
272 guard against the plague: William James, The Principles of Psychology (Henry Holt & Co., 1890), 122.
273 ‘not that kind of person’: Mark R. Leary, The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life, 1st ed. (Oxford University Press, 2004), 9.
273 could not do without them: Thomas Mann, Buddenbrooks, trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter (Vintage Books, 1961), 508.
273 habits . . . are arts: John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct: an Introduction to Social Psychology. (Modern Library, 1957), 15.
274 for a diet to succeed: Quoted in Charles Duhigg, “Warning: Habits May Be Good for You,” New York Times, July 13, 2008.