The Armen Show 201: Daniel Z. Lieberman | Dopamine, Creativity, Love, And Progression In “The Molecule of More”
Dr. Daniel Z. Lieberman, co-author 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, joins on episode 201 of the show~.
He divides his time between teaching, writing, and patient care. He is a clinical psychiatrist who received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, after undergraduate work at St John’s College. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University, and is also Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs.
In this episode, we discussed:
- Dr. Lieberman’s career, and the steps he took to be where he is at
- some of the nice features of the Great Books program at St. John’s College
- the details of his co-written book that focuses on dopamine
- anticipatory effects and the connection to the unexpected
- how drugs give hits of dopamine, and the pull to return to them
- percentages of rewards needed to keep people playing games or using social media
- desire dopamine versus control dopamine, and how dopaminergic individuals can flourish
- agentic and affiliative relationships, and the people who prefer each type
- control dopamine’s importance inhibiting aggression driven by passion
- 7R variant of the D4 receptor gene for dopamine and its link to migration
- conservative and liberal perspective, and their connection to a dopamine or H&N(here-and-now) based set of neurotransmitters
- liability of dopaminergic individuals, and their elements of most success
- how to take into account one’s state for balance purposes
- and more
You can check out his website here, or take a look at his book The Molecule of More on Amazon. It was voted on Forbes as one of the Must-Read Brain Books of 2018.
Glad to have Dr. Lieberman on the show.