Sex, drugs & chocolate
Subtitle: the science of pleasure
By: Paul Martin
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 2008
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
ISBN-13: 9780007127085
Subjects: Pleasure; History; Social aspects; Religious aspects; Popular psychology; Popular science; Physiology
Other titles: Sex, drugs and chocolate
Description: "In Sex, Drugs & Chocolate, Paul Martin looks at changing attitudes to pleasure over the centuries, including religious and legal attempts to control it, together with the biological and psychological drivers behind our hedonistic impulses. He considers sensation-seekers from Nero to Elvis, pleasure's opposites boredom, unhappiness and pain - and chemical pleasures from caffeine and cannabis to alcohol and heroin. He writes about sex in all its many forms, both social and solitary; the mysteries of the orgasm; shopping, eating, gambling and other behavioural pleasures; addiction and the darker side of pleasure's many moons; and finally the modest and undervalued pleasures of everyday life, such as gardening, sleeping and, of course, chocolate."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-377) and index.
Table of contents: title: The pursuit of pleasure; title: What is pleasure for?; title: Sex; title: Drugs; title: And chocolate; title: Pleasure and desire; title: The sensation-seekers; title: Boredom, unhappiness and pain; title: Addiction; title: Beastliness; title: Four drugs; title: Gambling and guzzling; title: Disapproval and prohibition; title: The wily hedonist.