The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning

One of Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2021

From the author of Against Empathy, a different kind of happiness book, one that shows us how suffering is an essential source of both pleasure and meaning in our lives

Why do we so often seek out physical pain and emotional turmoil? We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse ourselves in hot baths, run marathons. Some of us even seek out pain and humiliation in sexual role-play. Where do these seemingly perverse appetites come from?

Drawing on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science, The Sweet Spot shows how the right kind of suffering sets the stage for enhanced pleasure. Pain can distract us from our anxieties and help us transcend the self. Choosing to suffer can serve social goals; it can display how tough we are or, conversely, can function as a cry for help. Feelings of fear and sadness are part of the pleasure of immersing ourselves in play and fantasy and can provide certain moral satisfactions. And effort, struggle, and difficulty can, in the right contexts, lead to the joys of mastery and flow.

But suffering plays a deeper role as well. We are not natural hedonists—a good life involves more than pleasure. People seek lives of meaning and significance; we aspire to rich relationships and satisfying pursuits, and this requires some amount of struggle, anxiety, and loss. Brilliantly argued, witty, and humane, Paul Bloom shows how a life without chosen suffering would be empty—and worse than that, boring.  

• An Antidote to Toxic Positivity: Challenges the modern obsession with constant happiness, making a captivating case that pain, difficulty, and struggle are essential to a good life.
• The Science of Well-Being: Draws on groundbreaking findings from psychology and brain science to explain why we seek out turmoil, from eating spicy foods to running marathons.
• Pleasure vs. Meaning: Goes beyond simple hedonism to explore why a fulfilling existence requires more than just pleasure, arguing that a life of significance is built on a foundation of chosen suffering.
• Motivational Pluralism: Witty, humane, and brilliantly argued, this book defends the idea that we are complex beings who want many things—and shows why a life without struggle would be empty and boring.