The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind

by John Coates

Equally powerful psychological effects have been documented among athletes and recreational users who are “ripped” on anabolic steroids. Harrison Pope and David Katz, two psychiatrists from Harvard, found that many of these people succumb to mania, a psychiatric disorder in which the patient becomes euphoric and delusional, and experiences racing thoughts and a diminished need for sleep. In one case, a university athlete on steroids, after buying a sports car he could not afford, became so convinced of his invincibility that he asked a friend to film him driving the car into a tree, to prove he could not be hurt. In other cases users of steroids have committed criminal acts, and in their defense have blamed their behavior on testosterone, a legal strategy that has come to be known as “the dumbbell defense.” We have to interpret these cases with caution, because the athletes were taking steroids at levels far higher than can occur naturally in our bodies. Yet their behavior is not unlike what I observed in many traders during the dot-com bubble.