WHY GOOD SEX MATTERS

In Why Good Sex Matters, Wise not only reveals the fundamental problem in how we think about sex and pleasure but also how we arrived at this problematic relationship to begin with. This fascinating book helps us reclaim our innate capacity for joy, fun, exuberance, curiosity, and humor, while showing how reaching our sexual potential makes us smarter, happier, and more productive people.

Look anywhere in the media or on the streets of any major city, suburb or small town, and our species appears to be wholly focused on pleasure. At the same time, equally omnipresent advertisements for antidepressant medications reinforce messages that we are unhappy, we are anxious, we cannot relax and enjoy our lives. Further confusing the cultural landscape is the growing use of online adult content and pornography. This outlet masquerades as a short-cut to pleasure, an antidote to a pervasive anxiety. From this vantage point, a visiting anthropologist could conclude that ours is a culture gluttonous for pleasure. And yet, what Dr. Wise has observed as a cognitive neuroscientist and sexologist is that for all of this pleasure-seeking behavior, all this wanting of pleasure, very few of us are able experience the sensations or satisfaction we seek. In our single-minded search for pleasure in all areas of our lives, we misinterpret oversimplify our reward pathway, and the result is feeling nothing. Clinically speaking, as a culture, we are experiencing as state of anhedonia, the inability to feel a satisfactory amount of pleasure in nearly all dimensions. With sex, you may achieve orgasm, but you never experience that intense, satisfying conclusion you recall from your youth.

In WHY GOOD SEX MATTERS, Dr. Nan Wise explores what pleasure is and what purpose it serves; how the brain is wired for pleasure and pain and the link between the two; how perception, genetics, and environments affect pleasure; and the relationship between resilience and pleasure. And through all of these, how can we recapture our ability to feel the satisfying pleasure we seek, and experience the healing power of healthy pleasures?

Dr. Nan Wise is a clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist. She conducts neuroscience research on the human sexual response and helps couples reconnect, restore their libidos, and discover how to have sexual fun again. Her team was the first to systematically map the pleasure-related sensory pathways and discover the genital sensory cortex. Dr. Wise has been featured in The New York Times and on ABC News, Nightline, and The Doctors.