Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD is a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. He studied the Great Books at St. John’s College and attended medical school at New York University. Dr. Lieberman has published over 50 scientific papers and book chapters and is a recipient of the Caron Foundation Research Award. He is the coauthor of The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity – And Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, which has been translated into 14 languages. He has provided insight on psychiatric topics for the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Commerce, and the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy. He is currently at work on the follow-up book to Molecule of More, forthcoming from BenBella.
Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind by Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD
BenBella, August 2022
Psychologist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, reveals how to join forces with your unconscious to make better decisions, find more meaning in everyday life, and develop a richer, more balanced way of living.
The conscious mind, the part of your mental life you experience directly, is responsible for only a tiny sliver of what science says is going on inside your brain. Most of what you experience, your moods, and the things you like or dislike—most of who you are—comes from a much more mysterious part of your mind: the unconscious.
And to really understand the influences of the unconscious, says psychologist Daniel Z. Liberman, coauthor of The Molecule of More, we need to look to something often considered science’s alter ego: magic. Drawing on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and with deep dives into what we can learn from ancient mystical traditions from alchemy to numerology to meditation, Spellbound weaves together ancient magical traditions, psychological research, and the latest neuroscientific discoveries, in order to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious mind.
Like it or not, your unconscious is currently the source of most of your choices. It’s the source of your passions, your energy, and your “gut instinct.” It can help you solve seemingly impossible problems with the gift of inspiration. But it’s not always working in your favor: The unconscious is wild and untamed, often leading us down self-destructive paths that leave us baffled by our own decisions. Spellbound helps you take a new path: one where you learn how to recognize the influences of the unconscious, and make it an ally in helping you become the person you were meant to be.
The human mind is perhaps the most mysterious thing in the universe. Science is only beginning to uncover its secrets, and some believe that we may never fully plumb its depths. But the ancient traditions of magic, traditions of understanding that have been built up over centuries, give us another window into the hidden facets of our humanity.
After all, as the visionary Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race by Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD and Michael E. Long
BenBella, 2018
Winner of the Next Generation Indie Award
Why are we obsessed with the things we want only to be bored when we get them?
Why is addiction perfectly logical to an addict?
Why does love change so quickly from passion to indifference?
Why are some people die-hard liberals and others hardcore conservatives?
Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times--and so good at figuring them out?
The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas--and progress itself.
Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more--more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it's why we gamble and squander.
From dopamine's point of view, it's not the having that matters. It's getting something--anything--that's new. From this understanding--the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it--we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion--and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others.
In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity--and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different.
"One might consider it Freakonomics for the mind." — Greg Roth, "The Idea Enthusiast"
"Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long have pulled off an amazing feat. They have made a biography of a neurotransmitter a riveting read. Once you understand the power and peril of dopamine, you’ll better understand the human condition itself.” — Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and When
“Meet a molecule whose fingerprint rests upon every aspect of human nature—from desire and drugs to politics and progress. Lieberman and Long tell the epic saga of dopamine as a page-turner that you simply can't put down.” — David Eagleman, PhD, neuroscientist at Stanford and New York Times bestselling author
“I've worked as an artist for forty years, and the question ‘Why am I like this?’ has been a puzzle, a mystery, a plea, and an occasional cry to the heavens. Lieberman and Long have created a road map for all those wrestling between insatiable longing and the here and now.” — Thomas F. Wilson, actor and comedian
“Why do we crave what we don’t have rather than feel good about what we do—and why do fools fall in love? Haunting questions of human biology are answered by The Molecule of More, a must-read about the human condition.” — Gregg Easterbrook, author of It’s Better Than It Looks
“As a guy who creates musical stuff for a living and reads science books for kicks, I was doubly hooked by The Molecule of More. Lieberman and Long lay out the astoundingly wide-ranging effects of dopamine with nimble metaphors and fat-free sentences. And the research linking creativity and madness, with dopamine as the hidden culprit—let’s just say it hit home. Reading each chapter, I felt myself fitting a key smoothly into a locked door, opening onto a fresh-yet-familiar room.” — Robbie Fulks, Grammy-nominated recording artist
“Jim Watson, who deciphered the genetic code, famously said, ‘There are only molecules; the rest is sociology,’ adding fuel to C. P. Snow's complaint that Science and the humanities are two fundamentally different "cultures" which will never meet. The authors argue provocatively, yet convincingly, that the molecule that allows us to bridge the chasm between them is dopamine. Though written for ordinary people, the narrative is sprinkled throughout with dazzling new insights that will appeal equally to specialists.” — V.S. Ramachandran, PhD, professor at the University of California, San Diego, and at Salk Institute and author of The Emerging Mind