• Intimacy. The gift one may share with loved ones – friends and family. The inner peace of feeling safe in the presence of another person when physically or emotionally “exposed”.

• Integrity. The gift one may possess alone. The inner peace of knowing that one has behaved ethically.

Indecision, or not being able to turn away from the sensual “lower pleasures” including alcohol, other drugs, impulsive and ill-prepared sex, while understandable, is a common reality of modern risky society. Solutions to this complex problem are likewise complex.

Parents and other role models can help children make wise choices. But they often become confused and overwhelmed by conflicting advice. Hence, their efforts can be inconsistent and un-authoritative. Children, for their part must often make serious choices in the face of similarly conflicting information and difficult social pressures. The Choice Among Pleasures © offers teenagers, their families, and other adults working with young people a series of conceptual “building blocks” so that they can aim their efforts along newly understood lines of the brain’s cognitive development.

Using these “building blocks”, families have a solid base from which they can design their unique approaches according to their own comfort levels with familial, social, cultural and moral factors.