Diseasing of America How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control

by Peele, Stanton

• ISBN13: 9780787946432
• ISBN10: 0787946435
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-03
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

A Controversial Argument Against the Disease Theory of Addiction Diseasing of America is a powerful and controversial rebuttal to the "addiction as disease model" that many vested interests-including doctors, counselors, psychologists, treatment centers, and twelve-step programs that specialize in addiction treatment-don't want you to read."I found the arguments in Diseasing of America persuasive and carefully documented. While I find current addiction-treatment models helpful, I think it is critical to look at Stanton Peele's work to question our fundamental assumptions and adjust them on the basis of data."-Jennifer P. Schneider, author of Back From Betrayal and Sex, Lies, and Forgiveness, and member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine"A provocative review of the uses and abuses of the disease model in the past three decades. This important book has significantly added to my education and clinical understanding of addiction in my professional practice."-Richard R. Irons, M.D., The Menninger Clinic

Author Biography

STANTON PEELE, a clinician, researcher, and specialist in the field of alcohol and substance abuse, has won the Mark Keller Award from the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies and the Lindesmith Award from the Drug Policy Foundation. He is the author of the classic Love and Addiction and The Meaning of Addiction.

Table of Contents

Why Addiction Is Not a Disease (And Why We Should Care that It Not Be Treated as Such).

Alcoholism in America (How We Discovered that Alcohol is Addictive and that So Many People Are Alcoholics).

Who Says what the Truths about Alcoholism Are?

Transforming the Addict onto a Role Model, and the Person into an Addict.

The Addiction Treatment Industry.

What Is Addiction, and How Do People Get It? (Values, Intentions, Self-Restraint, and Environments).

How People Quit Addictions, Usually on Their Own.

Our Confusion over Law, Morality, and Addiction.

How We Lost Control of Our World.

Creating a World Worth Living In (Community, Efficacy, and Values).