Christopher Ringwald
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195147681
- eISBN:
- 9780199849338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195147681.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually ...
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It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually stress reliance on some sort of “higher power.” This book shows that in fact spiritual development is the central factor in the recovery of a significant percentage of substance abusers, and that spirituality is the lynchpin of many if not most recovery programmes in America. The author of this book visited many treatment centres and interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and addicts, counsellors, and family members, many of whose voices are heard within it. His purpose was to find out just how spirituality figures in the individual's recovery and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. This book explores the differences among a wide range of programmes: twelve-step, Christian, Muslim, Native American, and those based in Eastern religions.Less
It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually stress reliance on some sort of “higher power.” This book shows that in fact spiritual development is the central factor in the recovery of a significant percentage of substance abusers, and that spirituality is the lynchpin of many if not most recovery programmes in America. The author of this book visited many treatment centres and interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and addicts, counsellors, and family members, many of whose voices are heard within it. His purpose was to find out just how spirituality figures in the individual's recovery and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. This book explores the differences among a wide range of programmes: twelve-step, Christian, Muslim, Native American, and those based in Eastern religions.
Joan Petersilia
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195160864
- eISBN:
- 9780199943395
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195160864.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter ...
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This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter summarizes the data and develops major themes and policy recommendations. No one believes that the current prison and parole system is working. Recent public opinion polls show an increasing dissatisfaction with the purely punitive approach to criminal justice. Data suggest that having to earn and demonstrate readiness for release and being supervised postprison may have some deterrent or rehabilitation benefits—particularly for the most dangerous offenders. Effective programs include therapeutic communities for drug addicts and substance abuse programs with aftercare for alcoholics and drug addicts; cognitive behavioral programs for sex offenders; and adult basic education, vocational education, and prison industries for the general prison population.Less
This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter summarizes the data and develops major themes and policy recommendations. No one believes that the current prison and parole system is working. Recent public opinion polls show an increasing dissatisfaction with the purely punitive approach to criminal justice. Data suggest that having to earn and demonstrate readiness for release and being supervised postprison may have some deterrent or rehabilitation benefits—particularly for the most dangerous offenders. Effective programs include therapeutic communities for drug addicts and substance abuse programs with aftercare for alcoholics and drug addicts; cognitive behavioral programs for sex offenders; and adult basic education, vocational education, and prison industries for the general prison population.
Cristopher D. Ringwald
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195147681
- eISBN:
- 9780199849338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195147681.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that ...
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In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that these victims should be developed spiritually. When alcoholics, addicts, and other people who need such help attend support groups, they come to realize during their treatment that there is a “high power” in which they have to submit to instead of merely finding solidarity within the group. A large portion of the millions of Americans who are treated for alcoholism or addiction of substances are advised to foster a spiritual life through participating in fellowship activities like the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. This chapter introduces the notion of spirituality and how this is used to help people who practice substance abuse.Less
In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that these victims should be developed spiritually. When alcoholics, addicts, and other people who need such help attend support groups, they come to realize during their treatment that there is a “high power” in which they have to submit to instead of merely finding solidarity within the group. A large portion of the millions of Americans who are treated for alcoholism or addiction of substances are advised to foster a spiritual life through participating in fellowship activities like the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. This chapter introduces the notion of spirituality and how this is used to help people who practice substance abuse.
Bruce N. Waller
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262028165
- eISBN:
- 9780262327404
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028165.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, ...
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Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, but can also be found among philosophers (for example, those who champion the “plateau” of moral responsibility). The insistence on not looking deeper and in greater detail at the subtle causes of behavior is a common feature of both libertarian and compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. When moral responsibility is represented as a “basic right,” then scrutiny of the differences among those to whom moral responsibility is attributed is seen as a threat to the universal acknowledgment of human rights. Restrictions on deeper inquiry are built into the moral responsibility system.Less
Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, but can also be found among philosophers (for example, those who champion the “plateau” of moral responsibility). The insistence on not looking deeper and in greater detail at the subtle causes of behavior is a common feature of both libertarian and compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. When moral responsibility is represented as a “basic right,” then scrutiny of the differences among those to whom moral responsibility is attributed is seen as a threat to the universal acknowledgment of human rights. Restrictions on deeper inquiry are built into the moral responsibility system.
Rita Z. Goldstein
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199600434
- eISBN:
- 9780191725623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600434.003.0021
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals ...
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Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals with chronic drug use or addiction, may be decreased. Clinical symptoms include anhedonia and compulsive drug use, at the expense of the attainment of other rewarding experiences and despite detrimental consequences to the individual's functioning. While most addiction studies focus on the increased valuation of drug reward and drug-related cues, this chapter instead reviews the behavioural and neurobiological evidence for decreased valuation of non-drug reinforcers and cues. Future research should directly address the following question: is processing of drug reward enhanced at the expense of non drug-related reward (at least in certain subgroups of addicted individuals)? Or are these two processes independent?Less
Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals with chronic drug use or addiction, may be decreased. Clinical symptoms include anhedonia and compulsive drug use, at the expense of the attainment of other rewarding experiences and despite detrimental consequences to the individual's functioning. While most addiction studies focus on the increased valuation of drug reward and drug-related cues, this chapter instead reviews the behavioural and neurobiological evidence for decreased valuation of non-drug reinforcers and cues. Future research should directly address the following question: is processing of drug reward enhanced at the expense of non drug-related reward (at least in certain subgroups of addicted individuals)? Or are these two processes independent?
Bonnie Steinbock
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195341621
- eISBN:
- 9780199897131
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341621.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with ...
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Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with avoidable health problems, the woman may face criminal charges; she may be sent to jail. Yet the woman could have avoided criminal sanctions by availing herself of the legal option of abortion. It may seem inconsistent to allow women to choose abortion, which kills the fetus, while at the same time holding them criminally responsible for imposing a lesser harm on the child after birth. The interest view explains why there is no inconsistency. Although it denies that fetuses, at least in early gestation, have no interests and no rights, it acknowledges the interests of born children in having a healthy existence, interests that can be thwarted by maternal behavior during pregnancy. However, this chapter recognizes the moral obligations of pregnant women who do not abort their future children, it rejects a criminal justice approach to the public health problem of substance abuse in pregnancy, because this approach does nothing to protect children and nothing to help women get over their addictions.Less
Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with avoidable health problems, the woman may face criminal charges; she may be sent to jail. Yet the woman could have avoided criminal sanctions by availing herself of the legal option of abortion. It may seem inconsistent to allow women to choose abortion, which kills the fetus, while at the same time holding them criminally responsible for imposing a lesser harm on the child after birth. The interest view explains why there is no inconsistency. Although it denies that fetuses, at least in early gestation, have no interests and no rights, it acknowledges the interests of born children in having a healthy existence, interests that can be thwarted by maternal behavior during pregnancy. However, this chapter recognizes the moral obligations of pregnant women who do not abort their future children, it rejects a criminal justice approach to the public health problem of substance abuse in pregnancy, because this approach does nothing to protect children and nothing to help women get over their addictions.
Gene M. Heyman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262513111
- eISBN:
- 9780262288248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262513111.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than ...
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This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than nonclinic addicts. It suggests that the correlates of quitting are largely everyday events—the sort of occurrences which influence most decisions—and also illustrates that drug use will often fluctuate between periods of heavy use and periods of abstinence. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates that social factors and values significantly play in drug use. The applied implications of the analysis it presents are that prevention programs should enhance nondrug interests and that treatment programs should focus on decreasing the relative reward value of the drug.Less
This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than nonclinic addicts. It suggests that the correlates of quitting are largely everyday events—the sort of occurrences which influence most decisions—and also illustrates that drug use will often fluctuate between periods of heavy use and periods of abstinence. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates that social factors and values significantly play in drug use. The applied implications of the analysis it presents are that prevention programs should enhance nondrug interests and that treatment programs should focus on decreasing the relative reward value of the drug.
Owen Flanagan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198727224
- eISBN:
- 9780191833427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198727224.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts ...
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A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts who are so demoralized they have stopped trying to stop. Willing addiction reminds us that addiction is a phenomenon that involves a person-with-a-lifestyle-inside-an-ecology, that there are good-making features of using even addictively, and that addiction involves many of the same complex, negotiated features (experiential, personal, interpersonal, structural, and cultural) of other person-level lifestyle choices. Willing addiction shows that concepts such as choice, voluntariness, and reflective endorsement have a place in the psychology and phenomenology of addiction. There are implications for the psych-bio-politics of addiction and for the implausible idea that addiction is a brain disorder. Addiction is not a brain disorder, although certain aspects or features of addiction involve brain disorders.Less
A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts who are so demoralized they have stopped trying to stop. Willing addiction reminds us that addiction is a phenomenon that involves a person-with-a-lifestyle-inside-an-ecology, that there are good-making features of using even addictively, and that addiction involves many of the same complex, negotiated features (experiential, personal, interpersonal, structural, and cultural) of other person-level lifestyle choices. Willing addiction shows that concepts such as choice, voluntariness, and reflective endorsement have a place in the psychology and phenomenology of addiction. There are implications for the psych-bio-politics of addiction and for the implausible idea that addiction is a brain disorder. Addiction is not a brain disorder, although certain aspects or features of addiction involve brain disorders.
Robert P. Fairbanks
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226234083
- eISBN:
- 9780226234113
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226234113.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial ...
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Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial decline. But a closer look reveals a remarkable new phenomenon—street-level entrepreneurs repurposing hundreds of these empty houses as facilities for recovering addicts and alcoholics. This book is a study of this recovery house movement and its place in the new urban order wrought by welfare reform. To find out what life is like in these recovery houses, it goes inside one particular home in the Kensington neighborhood. Operating without a license and unregulated by any government office, the recovery house provides food, shelter, company, and a bracing self-help philosophy to addicts in an area saturated with drugs and devastated by poverty. From this starkly vivid close-up, the book widens the lens to reveal the intricate relationships the recovery houses have forged with public welfare, the formal drug treatment sector, criminal justice institutions, and the local government.Less
Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial decline. But a closer look reveals a remarkable new phenomenon—street-level entrepreneurs repurposing hundreds of these empty houses as facilities for recovering addicts and alcoholics. This book is a study of this recovery house movement and its place in the new urban order wrought by welfare reform. To find out what life is like in these recovery houses, it goes inside one particular home in the Kensington neighborhood. Operating without a license and unregulated by any government office, the recovery house provides food, shelter, company, and a bracing self-help philosophy to addicts in an area saturated with drugs and devastated by poverty. From this starkly vivid close-up, the book widens the lens to reveal the intricate relationships the recovery houses have forged with public welfare, the formal drug treatment sector, criminal justice institutions, and the local government.
Neil McKeganey and Marina Barnard
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861347329
- eISBN:
- 9781447302469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861347329.003.0008
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families
This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It ...
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This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It argues that the needs of children and families have attracted too little attention because the policy focus has been elsewhere – on reducing the risk of acquiring and spreading HIV infection, and on reducing drug-related crime. The chapter highlights one of the ‘thorniest’ questions facing professionals: how much adversity is it tolerable for children to experience at the hands of their addict parents?Less
This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It argues that the needs of children and families have attracted too little attention because the policy focus has been elsewhere – on reducing the risk of acquiring and spreading HIV infection, and on reducing drug-related crime. The chapter highlights one of the ‘thorniest’ questions facing professionals: how much adversity is it tolerable for children to experience at the hands of their addict parents?
Helena Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520298033
- eISBN:
- 9780520970168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520298033.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
In The Reformation of Machismo (1995), Elizabeth Brusco proposed an intriguing theory to explain the mass conversion of Latin Americans to evangelical Protestantism: Protestantism as gender strategy. ...
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In The Reformation of Machismo (1995), Elizabeth Brusco proposed an intriguing theory to explain the mass conversion of Latin Americans to evangelical Protestantism: Protestantism as gender strategy. Based on fieldwork in Colombia, Brusco argued that the Protestant Church is a female-dominated institution and that women convert their male partners to domesticate them. Enforcing the clean-living program of evangelists, Colombian women brought men into the domestic sphere as heads of household, and forced men to give up the male subcultural pursuits of alcohol, adultery, and domestic violence. Using Brusco's argument as a point of departure, this chapter describes conversion among addicted men in Puerto Rico as a male-driven—rather than female-driven—gender strategy that changed the relationship male converts had to their families and their work.Less
In The Reformation of Machismo (1995), Elizabeth Brusco proposed an intriguing theory to explain the mass conversion of Latin Americans to evangelical Protestantism: Protestantism as gender strategy. Based on fieldwork in Colombia, Brusco argued that the Protestant Church is a female-dominated institution and that women convert their male partners to domesticate them. Enforcing the clean-living program of evangelists, Colombian women brought men into the domestic sphere as heads of household, and forced men to give up the male subcultural pursuits of alcohol, adultery, and domestic violence. Using Brusco's argument as a point of departure, this chapter describes conversion among addicted men in Puerto Rico as a male-driven—rather than female-driven—gender strategy that changed the relationship male converts had to their families and their work.
Alan Ackerman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300167122
- eISBN:
- 9780300171808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300167122.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter presents concluding remarks on defamation. It discusses the story of James Frey, the self-described drug addict, alcoholic, and criminal, and author of a controversial memoir entitled A ...
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This chapter presents concluding remarks on defamation. It discusses the story of James Frey, the self-described drug addict, alcoholic, and criminal, and author of a controversial memoir entitled A Million Little Pieces, who appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to defend his veracity. Frey appeared on the show after The Smoking Gun website alleged that he manipulated details of his life to render himself more compelling as a “tragic victim” and to sweeten the “melodramatic narrative.” The chapter also discusses a story taken from the central chapter of An Unfinished Woman, which focuses on a tragicomic episode known as “the trouble,” which involves the “transshipment of a Russian prostitute.” It also argues that objectivity is something people share by balancing viewpoints, not something pure and independent which they come upon in isolation.Less
This chapter presents concluding remarks on defamation. It discusses the story of James Frey, the self-described drug addict, alcoholic, and criminal, and author of a controversial memoir entitled A Million Little Pieces, who appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to defend his veracity. Frey appeared on the show after The Smoking Gun website alleged that he manipulated details of his life to render himself more compelling as a “tragic victim” and to sweeten the “melodramatic narrative.” The chapter also discusses a story taken from the central chapter of An Unfinished Woman, which focuses on a tragicomic episode known as “the trouble,” which involves the “transshipment of a Russian prostitute.” It also argues that objectivity is something people share by balancing viewpoints, not something pure and independent which they come upon in isolation.
Don Ross, Harold Kincaid, David Spurrett, and Peter Collins (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262513111
- eISBN:
- 9780262288248
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262513111.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The image of the addict in popular culture combines victimhood and moral failure; we sympathize with addicts in films and novels because of their suffering and their hard-won knowledge. And yet ...
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The image of the addict in popular culture combines victimhood and moral failure; we sympathize with addicts in films and novels because of their suffering and their hard-won knowledge. And yet actual scientific knowledge about addiction tends to undermine this cultural construct. In this book, addiction researchers from neuroscience, psychology, genetics, philosophy, economics, and other fields survey findings in addiction science. They discuss such questions as whether addiction is one kind of condition, or several; if it is neurophysiological, psychological, social, or incorporates aspects of all of these; to what extent addicts are responsible for their problems, and how this affects health and regulatory policies; and whether addiction is determined by inheritance or environment, or both. The contributors discuss the possibility of a unifying basis for different addictions (considering both substance addiction and pathological gambling), offering both neurally and neuroscientifically grounded accounts, as well as discussions of the social context of addiction.Less
The image of the addict in popular culture combines victimhood and moral failure; we sympathize with addicts in films and novels because of their suffering and their hard-won knowledge. And yet actual scientific knowledge about addiction tends to undermine this cultural construct. In this book, addiction researchers from neuroscience, psychology, genetics, philosophy, economics, and other fields survey findings in addiction science. They discuss such questions as whether addiction is one kind of condition, or several; if it is neurophysiological, psychological, social, or incorporates aspects of all of these; to what extent addicts are responsible for their problems, and how this affects health and regulatory policies; and whether addiction is determined by inheritance or environment, or both. The contributors discuss the possibility of a unifying basis for different addictions (considering both substance addiction and pathological gambling), offering both neurally and neuroscientifically grounded accounts, as well as discussions of the social context of addiction.
Markus Heilig
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231172363
- eISBN:
- 9780231539029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172363.003.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter begins with a discussion of people's lack of sympathy and compassion for the plight of alcohol or drug addicts. It explains how most people think that addiction is self-inflicted and how ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of people's lack of sympathy and compassion for the plight of alcohol or drug addicts. It explains how most people think that addiction is self-inflicted and how they consciously distance themselves from those with addictive disorder. It then sets out the book's purpose, namely to share some of the amazing advances the neuroscience of addiction has made over the years. The book presents the author's personal take on what addiction is: a malfunction of some of the most fundamental brain circuits that make us tick, and a disease that is not much different from other chronic, relapsing medical conditions. The chapter emphasizes that addiction is not a moral failing, an inability to say no, or a condition that can be cured by mystic incantations. The book also shows that scientific advances have improved, in major ways, the lives of people with addiction, and that they hold out considerable hope for further progress.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of people's lack of sympathy and compassion for the plight of alcohol or drug addicts. It explains how most people think that addiction is self-inflicted and how they consciously distance themselves from those with addictive disorder. It then sets out the book's purpose, namely to share some of the amazing advances the neuroscience of addiction has made over the years. The book presents the author's personal take on what addiction is: a malfunction of some of the most fundamental brain circuits that make us tick, and a disease that is not much different from other chronic, relapsing medical conditions. The chapter emphasizes that addiction is not a moral failing, an inability to say no, or a condition that can be cured by mystic incantations. The book also shows that scientific advances have improved, in major ways, the lives of people with addiction, and that they hold out considerable hope for further progress.
Markus Heilig
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231172363
- eISBN:
- 9780231539029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172363.003.0002
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter presents the author's account of his early lessons about the destructive force of addiction. He describes one of his previous patients named Eric, an alcoholic and diabetic who refused ...
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This chapter presents the author's account of his early lessons about the destructive force of addiction. He describes one of his previous patients named Eric, an alcoholic and diabetic who refused treatment for his addiction and died shortly after his release from the hospital. The author believes that he still remembers Eric's story because it freed him of some of his innocence and naïveté. But it also captured several elements from which a journey into the landscape of addiction should start: that addiction makes people continue to use a drug even if they know it causes them severe harm and is likely ultimately to cost them their life. That nice people who might be perfectly able to contribute to society still may end up using drugs until they die. That the potential for denial, both from the patient and from everyone else, until it is too late exceeds most people's imagination.Less
This chapter presents the author's account of his early lessons about the destructive force of addiction. He describes one of his previous patients named Eric, an alcoholic and diabetic who refused treatment for his addiction and died shortly after his release from the hospital. The author believes that he still remembers Eric's story because it freed him of some of his innocence and naïveté. But it also captured several elements from which a journey into the landscape of addiction should start: that addiction makes people continue to use a drug even if they know it causes them severe harm and is likely ultimately to cost them their life. That nice people who might be perfectly able to contribute to society still may end up using drugs until they die. That the potential for denial, both from the patient and from everyone else, until it is too late exceeds most people's imagination.
Markus Heilig
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231172363
- eISBN:
- 9780231539029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172363.003.0009
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter considers the link between impulsivity and addiction. It shows that in the absence of protective family and societal factors, children who are impulsive have a higher risk for developing ...
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This chapter considers the link between impulsivity and addiction. It shows that in the absence of protective family and societal factors, children who are impulsive have a higher risk for developing heavy drug use or addiction. Heavy chronic drug use, on the other hand, will make these individuals even more impulsive, in a truly vicious circle. By the time this dynamic has a person firmly in its grip, not even the happiness of a truly beloved child can successfully compete with the immediate attraction of a few drinks. This is not because the person is unable to do the math in theory. It is because when these real-life decisions are made, they are made in real time. And when that processing is carried out, the valuation, decision making, and behavioral inhibition machinery simply does not do the job it is supposed to do. Decades of work in this field have shown that this is not a moral failing but rather a malfunction of sophisticated yet quite sensitive computational hardware.Less
This chapter considers the link between impulsivity and addiction. It shows that in the absence of protective family and societal factors, children who are impulsive have a higher risk for developing heavy drug use or addiction. Heavy chronic drug use, on the other hand, will make these individuals even more impulsive, in a truly vicious circle. By the time this dynamic has a person firmly in its grip, not even the happiness of a truly beloved child can successfully compete with the immediate attraction of a few drinks. This is not because the person is unable to do the math in theory. It is because when these real-life decisions are made, they are made in real time. And when that processing is carried out, the valuation, decision making, and behavioral inhibition machinery simply does not do the job it is supposed to do. Decades of work in this field have shown that this is not a moral failing but rather a malfunction of sophisticated yet quite sensitive computational hardware.
Jeffrey Poland and George Graham (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015509
- eISBN:
- 9780262295635
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015509.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Addictive behavior threatens not just the addict’s happiness and health but also the welfare and well-being of others. It represents a loss of self-control and a variety of other cognitive ...
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Addictive behavior threatens not just the addict’s happiness and health but also the welfare and well-being of others. It represents a loss of self-control and a variety of other cognitive impairments and behavioral deficits. An addict may say, “I couldn’t help myself.” But questions arise: Are we responsible for our addictions? What responsibilities do others have to help us? This book offers a range of perspectives on addiction and responsibility, and how the two are bound together. Contributors—from theorists to clinicians, from neuroscientists and psychologists to philosophers and legal scholars—discuss these questions using a variety of conceptual and investigative tools. Some offer models of addiction-related phenomena, including theories of incentive sensitization, ego-depletion, and pathological affect; others address such traditional philosophical questions as free will and agency, mind–body, and other minds. Two chapters, written by scholars who were themselves addicts, attempt to integrate first-person phenomenological accounts with the third-person perspective of the sciences. Contributors distinguish among moral responsibility, legal responsibility, and the ethical responsibility of clinicians and researchers. Taken together, the chapters offer the argument that we cannot fully understand addiction if we do not also understand responsibility.Less
Addictive behavior threatens not just the addict’s happiness and health but also the welfare and well-being of others. It represents a loss of self-control and a variety of other cognitive impairments and behavioral deficits. An addict may say, “I couldn’t help myself.” But questions arise: Are we responsible for our addictions? What responsibilities do others have to help us? This book offers a range of perspectives on addiction and responsibility, and how the two are bound together. Contributors—from theorists to clinicians, from neuroscientists and psychologists to philosophers and legal scholars—discuss these questions using a variety of conceptual and investigative tools. Some offer models of addiction-related phenomena, including theories of incentive sensitization, ego-depletion, and pathological affect; others address such traditional philosophical questions as free will and agency, mind–body, and other minds. Two chapters, written by scholars who were themselves addicts, attempt to integrate first-person phenomenological accounts with the third-person perspective of the sciences. Contributors distinguish among moral responsibility, legal responsibility, and the ethical responsibility of clinicians and researchers. Taken together, the chapters offer the argument that we cannot fully understand addiction if we do not also understand responsibility.
Julilly Kohler-Hausmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174525
- eISBN:
- 9781400885183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174525.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explores the governing problems that set the stage for the 1973 drug laws and the ways different groups struggled to interpret and respond to them. It chronicles New York's efforts to ...
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This chapter explores the governing problems that set the stage for the 1973 drug laws and the ways different groups struggled to interpret and respond to them. It chronicles New York's efforts to manage heroin through drug rehabilitation and looks at how the varied therapeutic approaches coexisted with criminalization. While rhetoric in the 1970s presented “addicts” and “pushers” as stable, essential identities, these terms are best understood as artifacts of the ongoing historical struggles over narcotics. Instead of objective divisions within the social body, the distinct categories of drug users were actually constituted through debates over policy.Less
This chapter explores the governing problems that set the stage for the 1973 drug laws and the ways different groups struggled to interpret and respond to them. It chronicles New York's efforts to manage heroin through drug rehabilitation and looks at how the varied therapeutic approaches coexisted with criminalization. While rhetoric in the 1970s presented “addicts” and “pushers” as stable, essential identities, these terms are best understood as artifacts of the ongoing historical struggles over narcotics. Instead of objective divisions within the social body, the distinct categories of drug users were actually constituted through debates over policy.
Jeanette Kennett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199862580
- eISBN:
- 9780199369638
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199862580.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Moral Philosophy
In this chapter I argue that there is a normative aspect to self-control that is not captured by the purely procedural account to be drawn from dual process theories of cognition – which we only ...
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In this chapter I argue that there is a normative aspect to self-control that is not captured by the purely procedural account to be drawn from dual process theories of cognition – which we only uncover when we consider what self-control is for and why it is valuable. For at least a significant sub-group of addicts their loss of control over their drug use may not be due to a lack or depletion of cognitive resources. Rather it may be that they have little confidence in their ability to exert control over their circumstances and shape the life they would value having and the person they would value beingLess
In this chapter I argue that there is a normative aspect to self-control that is not captured by the purely procedural account to be drawn from dual process theories of cognition – which we only uncover when we consider what self-control is for and why it is valuable. For at least a significant sub-group of addicts their loss of control over their drug use may not be due to a lack or depletion of cognitive resources. Rather it may be that they have little confidence in their ability to exert control over their circumstances and shape the life they would value having and the person they would value being
Helena Hansen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520298033
- eISBN:
- 9780520970168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520298033.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book examines the ways ex-addicted Pentecostals work toward rupture. One strategy for rupture is the performance of ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book examines the ways ex-addicted Pentecostals work toward rupture. One strategy for rupture is the performance of alternative masculinities. Having lost credibility with their families in the course of their addiction, converted men present themselves to their parents and spouses as spiritual heads of home. They draw on images of Christ to convert mainstream masculinity into an evangelical manhood that is based on domesticity, emotional responsiveness, self-sacrifice, and spiritual knowledge. This contrasts with the rise and fall of one of the only street ministries in Puerto Rico to cater to women. In their bid to cultivate the respectability and upward mobility of its male recruits, the ministries adopted a middle-class, patriarchal model of the family, over the working-class, female-headed extended families from which most of its membership comes, ultimately limiting the possibilities for women in the ministries.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book examines the ways ex-addicted Pentecostals work toward rupture. One strategy for rupture is the performance of alternative masculinities. Having lost credibility with their families in the course of their addiction, converted men present themselves to their parents and spouses as spiritual heads of home. They draw on images of Christ to convert mainstream masculinity into an evangelical manhood that is based on domesticity, emotional responsiveness, self-sacrifice, and spiritual knowledge. This contrasts with the rise and fall of one of the only street ministries in Puerto Rico to cater to women. In their bid to cultivate the respectability and upward mobility of its male recruits, the ministries adopted a middle-class, patriarchal model of the family, over the working-class, female-headed extended families from which most of its membership comes, ultimately limiting the possibilities for women in the ministries.
