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The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning has a lofty ambition. In the preface, Paul Bloom says that he wants to convince readers that humans do not single-mindedly pursue pleasure and instead have a similar appetite for pain and suffering too, under the view of "motivational pluralism" (i.e. people want many things).

As a Buddhist, I find the first part of the subtitle to be intriguing. One of the key tenets in Buddhism is "life is suffering", but there is nothing in the scriptures --as far as my reading goes-- that says that suffering can be enjoyable too. Suffering, in the Buddhist view, is when we feel disappointment or dissatisfaction because some of our wants are not met. Bloom defines suffering more broadly to include unfavorable conditions that might cause physical and emotional pain or exhaustion or other negative emotions.

The highlight of the book is when Bloom elaborates on chosen suffering, ranging from hot baths and eating spicy food to BDSM and watching horror movies. Bloom argues that we often deliberately choose to suffer because it provides contrast to pleasurable conditions that might follow. For instance, drinking cold water after eating sambal. Bloom also dives into our attraction to evil, reflected in our obsession with grim fictional works, pointing out that Batman is interesting because he has villains to fight and not just a man building infrastructure and institutions that might help more people.

However, this does not necessarily support Bloom's motivational pluralism argument since, in the end, the chosen suffering becomes a means to maximize pleasure instead. Other benefits of suffering according to Bloom's view are that it distracts us from our anxieties, signals a cry for help, and helps us be in the moment. But somehow, due to Bloom's tendency to introduce us to new references or experts in what seemingly every two paragraphs, the explanation just falls flat.

Some suffering also gives meaning to our lives due to people's tendency to look for the silver lining as a coping mechanism -- which sounds like a shaky argument at best. The book seems to shy away from acknowledging that some tragedies bring extreme suffering that nobody in their right mind will choose to have or can ever be justified by anything. While the search for meaning occupies many parts of the book, Bloom does not offer a new perspective on this topic, rather heavily borrowing findings from other books such as Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and, rather obviously, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

It is tempting to close this review by saying that reading this is a form of benign masochism in itself and the next book I read will definitely be more thought-provoking and solid. But probably I'll choose to end with this quote instead, "If you suffer for something that gives delight, soon the suffering itself can give joy."

Because while reading this isn't a pleasurable experience, bashing the book with friends and writing this review surely bring me joy. In its attempt to urge us to view suffering in a different light (dare I say, like something at the end of a tunnel?), the book almost succumbs to toxic positivity and fails to find a sweet spot between being depressing and being insightful.