Book. “Who better to teach us how to avoid excessive overconsumption than those who are most vulnerable to it: people who suffer from addiction? Treated and considered for thousands of years in all cultures as depraved, parasites, outcasts and vectors of moral turpitude, they have developed a wisdom in tune with our times. » In his book A world under dopamine, published in the United States, in 2021, under the title Dopamine Nation and just translated into French, psychiatrist Anna Lembke gives ample space to the stories of her patients and their care journey.
An academic who has notably published on the American scourge of opioid addiction, the author, head of a center specializing in addictions at Stanford, thus shows the diversity of the individuals concerned, as much as that of the substances or behaviors involved. Some consult her for “classic” addictions to alcohol, to drugs such as cannabis or heroin, to medications (opioids, stimulants, sedatives, etc.) or even excessive use of screens and social networks; others for more singular dependencies. So of this man, in his early sixties, addicted to masturbation since childhood, who tinkered with a machine for these purposes, using the electric current from his stereo. Over the years, he has sophisticated the device and the scenario, allowing for example a stranger met on a forum to remotely control the electric current, while others watch and comment, also via screen. Exhausted, plagued several times by suicidal thoughts, he finally decided to consult Dr. Lembke.
Another of his patients told him of immersing himself in ice water daily for several years, initially to detox from cocaine. “Immediately after getting out of the bath, I feel euphoric. Just like with drugs (…) I feel great for hours”, he testifies. The psychiatrist herself admits to having developed in her forties a devouring passion for… reading erotic novels, “linked to the appearance of electronic readers”. Compared to an addiction to lethal substances, this dependence might make one smile, but it nevertheless affected his daily, professional and family life for a time.
“All slaves”
This work, however, is not just a gallery of portraits of addicts of all kinds. Scientific studies in support, Anna Lembke explains educationally what addictions are and why “in one way or another, we are all slaves to our own masturbation machines”.
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