Overview

'The Globalization of Addiction' presents a radical rethink about the nature of addiction. Scientific medicine has failed when it comes to addiction. There are no reliable methods to cure it, prevent it, or take the pain out of it. There is no durable consensus on what addiction is, what causes it, or what should be done about it. Meanwhile, it continues to increase around the world. This book argues that the cause of this failure to control addiction is that the conventional wisdom of the 19th and 20th centuries focused too single-mindedly on the afflicted individual addict. Although addiction obviously manifests itself in individual cases, its prevalence differs dramatically between societies. For example, it can be quite rare in a society for centuries, and then become common when a tribal culture is destroyed or a highly developed civilization collapses. When addiction becomes commonplace in a society, people become addicted not only to alcohol and drugs, but to a thousand other destructive pursuits: money, power, dysfunctional relationships, or video games. A social perspective on addiction does not deny individual differences in vulnerability to addiction, but it removes them from the foreground of attention, because social determinants are more powerful. This book shows that the social circumstances that spread addiction in a conquered tribe or a falling civilisation are also built into today's globalizing free-market society. A free-market society is magnificently productive, but it subjects people to irresistible pressures towards individualism and competition, tearing rich and poor alike from the close social and spiritual ties that normally constitute human life. People adapt to their dislocation by finding the best substitutes for a sustaining social and spiritual life that they can, and addiction serves this function all too well. The book argues that the most effective response to a growing addiction problem is a social and political one, rather than an individual one. Such a solution would not put the doctors, psychologists, social workers, policemen, and priests out of work, but it would incorporate their practices in a larger social project. The project is to reshape society with enough force and imagination to enable people to find social integration and meaning in everyday life. Then great numbers of them would not need to fill their inner void with addictions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   0.718kg
ISBN:  

9780199588718

ISBN 10:   0199588716
Pages:   496
Publication Date:   04 March 2010
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Part I - Roots of Addiction in Free-market Society 1: Vancouver as prototype 2: Addiction1, Addiction2, Addiction3, Addiction4 3: The dislocation theory of addiction 4: Psychosocial integration is a necessity 5: Free-market society undermines psychosocial integration 6: Addiction is a way of adapting to dislocation (1) - historical evidence 7: Addiction is a way of adapting to dislocation (2) - quantitative research, clinical reports and 'spam' 8: Addiction is a way of adapting to dislocation (3) - the myth of the demon drugs Part II - The Interaction of Addiction and Society 9: Addiction and society 10: The role of addiction in the civilised madness of the 21st century 11: Getting by 12: Spiritual treatment for addiction: the 'fifth pillar' 13: Socrates' 'Master passions' and Dikaiosune 14: From blindness and paralysis to action 15: Social actions to control addiction: question period

Reviews

Alexander's watershed study could not be more timely. Mainstream commentators, who are now grasping for explanations for an epidemic of dangerous addictions, will find it indispensible. Catholic Herald This immensely important and original book will completely reframe your understanding of the wider social, historical, economic and cultural context of addiction The Scientific and Medical Network This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory This fascinating and unique book explores the problem of addiction using a nontraditional approach...a refreshing look at an age-old problem. Doody's Notes This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory

`...a considerable work, highly ambitious in its scope, impressive in its multidisciplinary scholarship, clear in its structure and generous in its references...a fundamental critique of the 20th century view of addiction.' nth position online |d Jan 09

This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. * John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory * This fascinating and unique book explores the problem of addiction using a nontraditional approach...a refreshing look at an age-old problem. * Doody's Notes * This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. * John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory * This immensely important and original book will completely reframe your understanding of the wider social, historical, economic and cultural context of addiction * The Scientific and Medical Network * Alexander's watershed study could not be more timely. Mainstream commentators, who are now grasping for explanations for an epidemic of dangerous addictions, will find it indispensible. * Catholic Herald *

Alexander's watershed study could not be more timely. Mainstream commentators, who are now grasping for explanations for an epidemic of dangerous addictions, will find it indispensible. Catholic Herald This immensely important and original book will completely reframe your understanding of the wider social, historical, economic and cultural context of addiction The Scientific and Medical Network This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory This fascinating and unique book explores the problem of addiction using a nontraditional approach...a refreshing look at an age-old problem. Doody's Notes This is, without a doubt, the most intriguing and painstaking book on addiction I have read for some time... The Globalisation of Addiction is scholarly, meticulously researched, passionately critical of the free-market economy, biased, speculative, selective, and quite wonderful...highly recommended...this is one of the most remarkable addiction texts of the decade. John B. Davies, Addiction Research and Theory

Author Information

"Bruce Alexander is a psychologist and Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University, where he has worked since 1970. His primary research interest has been the psychology of addiction. He is best known in the UK for the ""Rat Park"" experiments, which helped to demonstrate the falsity of the outworn belief that simple exposure to narcotic drugs can cause addiction. In Canada, he has been well known as a critic of the War on Drugs for decades. His most recent work has been on the causes of the current worldwide proliferation of addiction, not only to drugs, but to a great variety of other habits and pursuits. Exploring this topic has required that he venture far beyond his training in psychology, particularly into the fields of history and anthropology."

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