Pleasure: from onthogenesis to addiction

Among the various models proposed for understanding the dynamics of addiction to psychoactive substances, no single one succeeds in explaining how the three dimensions--biological, psychological, and social--interact. The physio-pathological models proposed so far suffer from too reductive a vision of the notion of pleasure to hope to supply this explanation. Studies in the neurosciences and genetics indicate that cerebral function, and hence pleasure itself, is determined less by our genes than by the continuous interaction that occurs between every organism and its environment, including other individuals. These indications make it possible to propose an integrated model capable of answering the main questions posed by all types of addiction.