The Science of Revenge: The World's Deadliest Addiction

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Season 1 | Episode 213

Revenge isn’t just an emotional impulse—it’s an addiction. Dr. Phil and James Kimmel, Jr., JD, break down its impact on the brain and how forgiveness rewires our chemistry for healing.

Revenge feels like justice, but what if it’s more like an addiction? Dr. Phil and James dive into the neuroscience behind revenge—how it hijacks our brain's pain and reward systems just like substance dependency. They explore how society reinforces these cycles, why letting go isn’t weakness, and how forgiveness actually rewires the mind. Plus, Kimmel’s “Non-Justice System” offers a fresh way to process grudges without fueling destruction. In Kimmel’s latest groundbreaking book, The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction and How to Overcome It, unveils the unseen neurobiological forces behind our compulsive desires for retribution—an addiction that silently fuels violence and aggression in all its forms. James Kimmel, Jr., JD, is a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, a lawyer, and the founder and co-director of the Yale Collaborative for Motive Control Studies. A breakthrough scholar and expert on revenge, he first identified compulsive revenge seeking as an addiction and developed the behavioral addiction model of revenge as a public health approach for preventing and treating violence. He is the creator of The Nonjustice System https://nonjustice.org/, the Miracle Court app https://www.miraclecourt.com/ and https://SavingCain.org for recovering from grievances and revenge desires and preventing mass violence. He maintains an active legal practice and speaking calendar and is the author of two other books on revenge: Suing for Peace: A Guide for Resolving Life’s Conflicts and The Trial of Fallen Angels, a novel.

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