The Molecule of More

Ian W. v. Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd. Victoria Registry, Federal Court of Australia, 
March 10, 2012.
Klos, K. J., Bower, J. H., Josephs, K. A., Matsumoto, J. Y., & Ahlskog, J. E. (2005). 
Pathological hypersexuality predominantly linked to adjuvant dopamine ago-
nist therapy in Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy. Parkinsonism 
and Related Disorders, 11(6), 381–386.
Pickles, K. (2015, November 23). How online porn is fueling sex addiction: 
Easy access to sexual images blamed for the rise of people with compul-
sive sexual behaviour, study claims. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.
dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3330171/How-online-porn-fuelling-sex 
-addiction-Easy-access-sexual-images-blamed-rise-people-compulsive 
-sexual-behaviour-study-claims.html
Voon, V., Mole, T. B., Banca, P., Porter, L., Morris, L., Mitchell, S., . . . Irvine, 
M. (2014). Neural correlates of sexual cue reactivity in individuals with and 
without compulsive sexual behaviors. PloS One, 9(7), e102419.

---

59
DRUGS
Dixon, M., Ghezzi, P., Lyons, C., & Wilson, G. (Eds.). (2006). Gambling: Behavior 
theory, research, and application. Reno, NV: Context Press.
National Research Council. (1999). Pathological gambling: A critical review. Chicago: 
Author.
Gentile, D. (2009). Pathological video-game use among youth ages 8 to 18: A 
national study. Psychological Science, 20(5), 594–602.
Przybylski, A. K., Weinstein, N., & Murayama, K. (2016). Internet gaming dis-
order: Investigating the clinical relevance of a new phenomenon. American 
Journal of Psychiatry, 174(3), 230–236.
Chatfield, T. (2010, November). Transcript of “7 ways games reward the brain.” 
Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games 
_reward_the_brain/transcript?language=en
Fritz, B., & Pham, A. (2012, January 20). Star Wars: The Old Republic—the story 
behind a galactic gamble. Retrieved from http://herocomplex.latimes.com/
games/star-wars-the-old-republic-the-story-behind-a-galactic-gamble/
Nayak, M. (2013, September 20). Grand Theft Auto V sales zoom past $1 billion 
mark in 3 days. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/
entertainment-us-taketwo-gta-idUSBRE98J0O820130920
Ewalt, David M. (2013, December 19). Americans will spend $20.5 billion on 
video games in 2013. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/
sites/davidewalt/2013/12/19/americans-will-spend-20-5-billion-on-video 
-games-in-2013/#2b5fa4522c1e

---

---

61
Chapter 3
DOMINATION
How far will you go?
In which dopamine drives us to overcome complexity, adversity, 
emotion, and pain so we can control our environment.
PLANNING AND CALCULATION
Just wanting rarely gets you much of anything. You have to figure out 
how to obtain it, and whether it is worth having at all. In fact, when we 
do things without thinking about how and what next, failure is not even 
the worst possible outcome. The results can range from a little overeat-
ing all the way to reckless gambling, drug abuse, and worse.
Desire dopamine makes us want things. It is the source of raw 
desire: give me more. But we’re not at the ungoverned mercy of our desire. 
We also have a complementary dopamine circuit that calculates what 
Impulse without reason is not enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.
—William James
One cool judgment is worth a dozen hasty councils.
—Woodrow Wilson

---

62
THE MOLECULE OF MORE
sort of more is worth having. It gives us the ability to construct plans—to 
strategize and dominate the world around us to get the things we want. 
How does a single chemical do both things? Think of rocket fuel that 
powers the main engines of a spaceship. The same fuel that pushes 
the rocket forward can be redirected to drive directional thrusters to 
steer the ship, as well as retrorockets to slow it down. It all depends on 
the path the fuel takes before it’s ignited—different functions, but all 
working together to get the spaceship to its destination. In a similar way, 
dopamine moving through different brain circuits yields different func-
tions, too, and toward a common end: a relentless focus on enhancing 
the future.
Urges come from dopamine passing through the mesolimbic 
circuit, which we call the dopamine desire circuit. Calculation and 
planning—the means of dominating situations—come from the meso-
cortical circuit, which we will call the dopamine control circuit (Figure 
3). Why call it the control circuit? Because its purpose is to manage the 
uncontrolled urges of desire dopamine, to take that raw energy and 
guide it toward profitable ends. Also, by using abstract concepts and