Everything Harder Than Everyone Else: Why Some of Us Push Ourselves to Extremes

Journalist Valentish (Woman of Substances) profiles people “willing to do the sorts of things that most others couldn’t, shouldn’t, or wouldn’t” in this colorful, squirm-inducing account. Searching for the psychological drive that compels ultramarathoners to run until their feet bleed, suspension artists to hang from hooks driven through their flesh, and women and men to perform “gonzo porn,” Valentish comes up with a variety of answers. To extreme eater Jack Allocca, who has tasted human flesh and ingested delirium-inducing plants, overriding the disgust response is a means of testing one’s “mental mettle.” Ultrarunner Charlie Engle runs thousands of miles in extreme weather conditions to help overcome his former addiction to alcohol and drugs. Bodybuilder Kortney Olson seeks power and control to counter the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. Hardcore wrestler KrackerJak, who has a brain injury from being repeatedly hit over the head with a DVD player, might be “thrashing out complicated internal issues in the crudest of external ways.” Valentish gets “flogged” at a fetish dungeon in Melbourne and draws on her own experiences training as a Muay Thai fighter to relate to her subjects, and writes about the psychology and physiology of extreme experiences with nuance and sensitivity. The result is an eye-opening tour of the human psyche. (Sept.)