THE FIFTH INFLUENCE OR, THE DIALECTICS OF PLEASURE "Th is book is about everything you ever wanted to know about pleasure, but did not know where to fi nd the answers." - Alexander Ovsich Ecclesiastes 3-12 and 3-13: I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil . - 8-15 it says. And I commend enjoym- ent for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink, and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of life which God gives him under the sun; "To my knowledge, only one psychological theory of motivational interactions has been put forward: Cabanac holds that pleasure is the common currency guaranteeing the trade-off necessary for achieving the ranking of concurrent motivations. In other words, in his view, organisms decide to commit to the activity that maximizes pleasure." - Patrick Anselme "Th e reasons that Michel Cabanac gives for his views on pleasure are good reasons, because they are supported by arguments about evidence, and not simply opinions based upon introspection. Indeed, the main pleasure that I gained from this book came from reading about the very elegant experiments that Michel and his colleagues have conducted over the years. In this respect, I fi nd it hard to believe that other people's experience will be diff erent from mine." - David McFarland"