Do we live in an age of addictions? Some pass their time in the office, to the detriment of their family life. Others blow their budget on useless and spontaneous buys. Others still crave thrills and sensations, obtained through participating in extreme sports. But is there a link between a drug addict and a person addicted to shopping, sex or work? Are these new dependencies increasingly frequent, symptomatic of our society? Where does pleasure stop and danger begin? Throughout this essay, in which there are many examples of such sensation seekers, the authors attempt to retrace the history of this phenomenon of pleasure to excess, diversion to dependence. They analyze the underlying suffering that is concealed by such behaviors. Far from dramatizing, the authors attempt to reassure the reader: the search for sensations can remain a simple distraction. Addiction itself begins as soon as an activity becomes an irrepressible desire and when this behavior self-perpetuates, despite disastrous consequences for one's normal social life. Thanks to a precise analysis supported by international studies of those mechanisms that drive addiction, this book aids in detecting suffering and other dangers that can lead to behavioral addictions. This help is all the more important because addictions are often denied not only by their victims but also by society.

Jean Adès is professor of medicine and head of the psychiatric service at the Hospital Louis Mourier.

Professor Michael Lejoyeux is a psychiatrist.

They have previously published La fièvre des achats together, in 1999.