The Subject Of Addiction

Drugs and drug use are an integral part of human culture. Yet we know hardly anything about drugs, at least not the kind of knowledge that would help us to understand how drugs affect people and how people beome addicted to drugs. This is most surprising in the light of the vast amount of knowledge accumulated in the sciences. Psychoanalysis might not be an obvious choice for the treatment of addiction. Nevertheless, it is in an excellent position to make a contribution to a problem that has so far defied much of our understanding. By inviting people to speak about themselves, psychoanalysis has established a unique way of collecting clinical material, a material that surely must be immediately relevant coming as it does from the horse's mouth. With addiction on the increase, this fact alone justifies the necessity for a different approach.Providing a theoretical foundation for the argument that psychoanalysis should be seriously considered, and where possible incorporated into the treament of addicts, this thoughtful and innovative book can serve as an orientation in the ongoing front-line battle with addicts and addiction.

Drugs and drug use are an integral part of human culture. Yet we know hardly anything about drugs, at least not the kind of knowledge that would help us to understand how drugs affect people and how people beome addicted to drugs. This is most surprising in the light of the vast amount of knowledge accumulated in the sciences. Psychoanalysis might not be an obvious choice for the treatment of addiction. Nevertheless, it is in an excellent position to make a contribution to a problem that has so far defied much of our understanding. By inviting people to speak about themselves, psychoanalysis has established a unique way of collecting clinical material, a material that surely must be immediately relevant coming as it does from the horse's mouth. With addiction on the increase, this fact alone justifies the necessity for a different approach.Providing a theoretical foundation for the argument that psychoanalysis should be seriously considered, and where possible incorporated into the treament of addicts, this thoughtful and innovative book can serve as an orientation in the ongoing front-line battle with addicts and addiction.

The most important writings on the psychoanalytic understandings and treatments of drug and vice addiction Drug abuse, alcoholism, compulsive gambling, and other destructive addictions plague our society. Theories of addiction locate its cause variously—in factors related to the substance, the addict's personality, or to the addict's environment. Arguments about effective treatment programs are fierce. Essential Papers on Addiction presents the most important writing and the various sides of the debate on the psychoanalytic understanding and treatment of addiction. Daniel Yalisove outlines the history of the treatment of addiction and introduces important psychoanalytic concepts used in understanding addicts. The book includes case studies which illustrate the course of addiction and presents the work of the most influential theorists in the field. Divided into eight sections focusing on historical work on addiction, psychoanalytic theories of addiction, transference and countertransference issues in treating addiction, psychoanalytic treatment for the addictions, psychoanalytic therapy and disease concepts, and psychiatric illness and addiction, this definitive volume includes contributions by the most experienced and renowned experts on the subject. Contributors include S. Freud, E. Glover, S. Rado, R. P. Knight, L. Wurmser, N. E. Zinberg, H. Krystal, D. Jacobs, R. Fine, J. Gustafson, C. L. Brown, M. L. Selzer, V. Davidson, J. Imhof, R. Hirsch, R. E. Terenzi, M. E. Chafetz, A. Silber, R. J. Rosenthal, E. M. Pattison, M. B. Sobell, L. C. Sobell, J. E. Zweben, E. Simmel, B. Brickman, E. J. Khantzian, R. D. Weiss, S. M. Mirin, A. T. McLellan, and H. J. Richards.

Drug abuse persists as one of the most costly and contentious problems on the nation's agenda. Pathways of Addiction meets the need for a clear and thoughtful national research agenda that will yield the greatest benefit from today's limited resources. The committee makes its recommendations within the public health framework and incorporates diverse fields of inquiry and a range of policy positions. It examines both the demand and supply aspects of drug abuse. Pathways of Addiction offers a fact-filled, highly readable examination of drug abuse issues in the United States, describing findings and outlining research needs in the areas of behavioral and neurobiological foundations of drug abuse. The book covers the epidemiology and etiology of drug abuse and discusses several of its most troubling health and social consequences, including HIV, violence, and harm to children. Pathways of Addiction looks at the efficacy of different prevention interventions and the many advances that have been made in treatment research in the past 20 years. The book also examines drug treatment in the criminal justice setting and the effectiveness of drug treatment under managed care. The committee advocates systematic study of the laws by which the nation attempts to control drug use and identifies the research questions most germane to public policy. Pathways of Addiction provides a strategic outline for wise investment of the nation's research resources in drug abuse. This comprehensive and accessible volume will have widespread relevanceâ€"to policymakers, researchers, research administrators, foundation decisionmakers, healthcare professionals, faculty and students, and concerned individuals.

This book considers how largely accepted ‘legal truths’ about drugs and addiction are made and sustained through practices of lawyering. Lawyers play a vital and largely underappreciated role in constituting legal certainties about substances and ‘addiction’, including links between alcohol and other drugs, and phenomena such as family violence. Such practices exacerbate, sustain and stabilise ‘addicted’ realities, with a range of implications – many of them seemingly unjust – for people who use alcohol and other drugs. This book explores these issues, drawing upon data collected for a major international study on alcohol and other drugs in the law, including interviews with lawyers, magistrates and judges; analyses of case law; and legislation. Focussing on an array of legal practices, including processes of law-making, human rights deliberations, advocacy and negotiation strategies, and the sentencing of offenders, and buttressed by overarching analyses of the ethics and politics of such practices, the book looks at how alcohol and other drug ‘addiction’ emerges and is concretised through the everyday work lawyers and decision makers do. Foregrounding ‘practices’, the book also shows that law is more fragile than we might assume. It concludes by presenting a blueprint for how lawyers can rethink their advocacy practices in light of this fragility and the opportunities it presents for remaking law and the subjects and objects shaped by it. This ground-breaking book will be of interest not only to those studying and working within the field of alcohol and drug addiction but also to lawyers and judges practising in this area and to scholars in a range of disciplines, including law, science and technology studies, sociology, gender studies and cultural studies

With chapters from Rik Loose, Fabian Naparstek, Patricia Gherovici, Bruce Fink, Thomos Svolos and many others, the anthology is for people interested in the topic of addictions, or in Lacanian psychoanalysis, and especially for those interested in how the two intersect. Lacan and Addiction is based on papers presented at a 2006 conference where Lacanians from around the world gathered to speak about addictions. Conference participants explored the complexity of the problem for the individual, society, clinicians, and for treatment. In the current climate, where addiction is mostly treated by variations of twelve step approaches and psychopharmacological "countermeasures", it is all too easy to lose sight of the dimensions of addiction that render it not just a disease to be managed but rather a significant form of human suffering and a subjective responsibility, both of which are critical components of addiction treatment. More and more, addiction treatment is turning away from psychological and psychoanalytic theorization and towards psychopharmacological measures; this anthology attempts to rectify that situation.

A guide to the techniques and analysis of clinical data. Each of the seventeen sections begins with a drawing and biographical sketch of a seminal contributor to the discipline. After an introduction and historical survey of clinical methods, the next fifteen sections are organized by body system. Each contains clinical data items from the history, physical examination, and laboratory investigations that are generally included in a comprehensive patient evaluation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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