Book excerpt: How do you save yourself from your destructive desires? All this freedom is making us ill. Perhaps half of all deaths are caused by overeating, smoking, drinking too much, failing to exercise, and other behaviours we indulge in against our better judgement. Why do so many of us embark knowingly on the long march to slow-motion suicide? In this brilliant and irreverent search for answers, Daniel Akst delves deep into overconsumption, overspending, procrastination, expletive-laden anger, promiscuity, and most of the other homely transgressions that bedevil us in a world of freedom, prosperity, and technological empowerment. He draws a vivid picture of the many-sided problem of desire — and delivers a blueprint for how we can steer more directly toward the wants we most want for ourselves.