(Nautilus) – Kimmel uses this story to open his new book, The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World’s Deadliest Addiction—and How to Overcome It. In it, Kimmel, now a lawyer and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, describes how he went from this near-act of devastating violence to collaborating with neuroscientists to understand what drives us to punish people who hurt us.

He argues that revenge is addictive—not just figuratively speaking, but in a biological sense, much like alcohol and other drugs. His book traces 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. (Read More)