Suffer Harder, Drink Harder

The psychoanalytic logic behind the ecstasy of excess - and what came after

There are people out there who, somehow, forget to finish their drinks. These are people who leave a third of a beer at the bar, who pour half a glass of wine down the sink. Such people are beautiful mysteries to me.

I drank because… it worked. It made me less self-conscious, less inhibited, less afraid. It’s no mystery to me why people like it. What I …