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Against Willpower
Article

Against Willpower

Willpower is a dangerous, old idea that needs to be scrapped.

Carl Erik Fisher
Nautilus, 2017
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Obesity. Unemployment. Poverty. People easily dismiss these social problems as failures of individuals with a lack of willpower. Columbia University psychiatrist Carl Erik Fisher warns against such oversimplification. Self-control relies on many factors in the brain, and people, he urges, need to stop overstating the importance of willpower. Follow Fisher’s intriguing history and convincing takedown of the pervasive, inaccurate and possibly toxic cultural concept. getAbstract suggests this piece to anyone who is at times struggling with being disciplined.

Take-Aways

  • Society’s and individuals’ obsession with willpower is toxic.
  • People who overrate willpower ignore other kinds of self-control, including “intrapersonal bargaining” and “emotional regulation.”
  • Willpower has centuries-old roots in early Christianity. The word itself emerged in 1874 when Victorians blamed poor people’s substance abuse on the failure of willpower.

About the Author

Carl Erik Fisher is an addiction psychiatrist and Columbia University assistant professor of clinical psychiatry.

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