No. 97 of 108
September 18, 2025
In James Kimmel’s (the attorney and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, not the late night show host) new book, The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World’s Deadliest Addiction—and How to Overcome It, Kimmel describes the science and circumstances behind revenge as a dopamine-producing action that some part of the population becomes addicted to, and therefore will repeat acts of revenge irrespective of whether those acts are in relationship to a past harm. His book cites “a growing scientific literature indicating that even contemplating retribution against the people we think have wronged us taps into the brain’s reward circuitry. The result is a temporary buzz, followed by a comedown that leaves the brain wanting more… Kimmel has suggested the condition may have affected numerous historical and current political figures”.
Whoa! Addiction to revenge! Sigh. If this tracks in your experience of what’s happening, understanding there is actual science behind the phenom and not only bad behavior is useful in figuring out how we re-align the (frankly) global phenom of cycles of revenge. Among other things, this is human behavior that isn’t easily interrupted by regime change or political dialogue. A case for human evolution, don’t you think? [Note: That James Kimmel’s book about revenge arrives at the proximate moment of the other James Kimmel’s firing is cosmic alignment.]