The Pornography Paradox
&gt;the dopamine system<p>If I had a nickel for every time someone made a reference to neurotransmitters as an unscientific rhetorical bludgeon, I could probably buy a house in Stinson Beach. There is no &quot;dopamine system&quot;, certainly no more than there is an &quot;enkephalin system&quot; or a  &quot;glycine system&quot;. The age of psychotropic drugs has produced a new generation of pseudoneuroscience, which depicts a brain whose behavior can always be explained in terms of a few neurotransmitters — the four humours for scholars in the academy of YouTube.<p>Let it be known that the mind deals with information first, and no levels of N-acetylaspartate or 2-arachidonylglycerol, however finely tuned, can teach you how to do calculus or drive a car, or, for that matter, how to have sex. Neurotransmitters, particularly famous neurotransmitters, should only be invoked when there is physical evidence, and the pop-culture equivocation between dopamine release and pleasure itself certainly does not qualify.