Finding Meaning and Pleasure Through Suffering
Psychologist Paul Bloom explores why we’re drawn to difficult experiences
Most of us are drawn to activities that might seem unpleasant on the surface. But why? That’s the question explored in renowned psychologist Paul Bloom’s latest book, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning.
In it, Bloom interrogates one of the most puzzling paradoxes of human nature. People willingly seek experiences that require effort, struggle, and varying degrees of physical or psychological pain every day. How does this make sense?
The simple answer appears to be that we derive pleasure from certain types of pain. But not so fast, says Bloom. It’s more complicated than that. Let’s hear what the author says about our motivations for courting unpleasantness and what it means for how we choose to live.
Table of Contents:
Welcome
Launch the Class