Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control / Edition 1

by Stanton Peele

Overview

A Controversial Argument Against the Disease Theory of Addiction, 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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900787946431
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/03/1999
Edition description:	1999 Reissued Paper Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

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).

Editorial Reviews

Argues that the disease model of chemical and alcohol addiction has no basis in scientific fact and has spawned a recovery movement that is grossly ineffective. Social psychologist Peele explains how the recovery industry grew and recommends alternatives to the medicalization of addiction. In addition to not helping the alcoholic or substance abuser, he argues, the disease model often allows addicts not to face the moral and legal responsibilities of their actions. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"A courageous indictment of the destructive mindset that alldeviant behavior is a disease. Peele offers mindful alternatives tothose suffering from addictions and to professionals seeking tohelp them." (Ellen Langer, professor of psychology, HarvardUniversity)

"I found the arguments in Diseasing of America persuasive andcarefully documented. While I find current addiction-treatmentmodels helpful, I think it is critical to look at Stanton Peele'swork to question our fundamental assumptions and adjust them on thebasis of data." (Jennifer P. Schneider, author of Back FromBetrayal and Sex, Lies, and Forgiveness, and member of the AmericanSociety of Addiction Medicine)

"A provocative review of the uses and abuses of the disease modelin the past three decades. This important book has significantlyadded to my education and clinical understanding of addiction in myprofessional practice." (Richard R. Irons, The MenningerClinic)

"Peele makes it clear that the disease model of addiction is anemperor without clothes. By placing addictive behaviors in thecontext of other problems of living, he emphasizes personalresponsibility for one's habits. The book empowers the reader toview addiction in a new optimistic light." (G. Alan Marlatt,director, Addictive Behaviors Research Center, University ofWashington, and coauthor of Relapse Prevention)

From the Publisher