The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

by Jonathan Haidt

The day before his sentencing, he went to the hospital emergency room because he had a pounding headache and was experiencing a constant urge to rape his land-lady. (His wife had thrown him out of the house months earlier.) Even while he was talking to the doctor, he asked passing nurses to sleep with him. A brain scan found that an enormous tumor in his frontal cortex was squeezing everything else, preventing the frontal cortex from doing its job of inhibiting inappropriate behavior and thinking about consequences. (Who in his right mind would put on such a show the day before his sentencing?) When the tumor was removed, the hypersexuality vanished. Moreover, when the tumor grew back the following year, the symptoms returned; and when the tumor was removed again, the symptoms disappeared again.