#398. The Right Kind of Suffering | Paul Bloom
Is there a good kind of suffering? Paul Bloom says, yes -- there is a kind of suffering that you choose. This voluntary suffering can reduce anxiety and make your life more meaningful. This episode explores that idea, along with: why we are hardwired to worry about bad things (and why that’s ok); the difference between chosen and unchosen suffering; post-traumatic growth and why it’s not always true that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger; benign masochism and the blurring of pleasure and pain; and cognitive empathy vs. emotional empathy.
Dr. Paul Bloom is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. He is the author of six books, the most recent of which is called, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning.
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Where to find Paul Bloom online:
Other Media Appearances:
- Paul Bloom’s Ted Talks
- On Making Sense with Sam Harris:
- Episode #266
- Episode #198
Books Mentioned:
- The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning
- Against Empathy
- How Pleasure Works
- Just Babies
- Descartes' Baby
- How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
Other Resources Mentioned:
- Paul Rozin, “benign masochism”
- Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
- George Bonanno, on Twitter, The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD
- Randolph Nesse
- Roy Baumeister
- Ram Dass
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
- University of Toronto - “Why the Pursuit of Happiness Makes Us Feel Unhappy”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Robert Wright
- Tania Singer
- Matthieu Ricard
- “Families of Missing Black Americans Fight for Media, Police to Focus on their Loved Ones' Cases”
- Steve Osunsami
- Jasmine Brown
- Rebecca Solnit
- A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
