Addiction and Choice: Rethinking the relationship

by Nick Heather, Gabriel Segal

Overview

The central problem in the study of addiction is to explain why people repeatedly behave in ways they know are bad for them. For much of the previous century and until the present day, the majority of scientific and medical attempts to solve this problem were couched in terms of involuntary behaviour; if people behave in ways they do not want, then this must be because the behaviour is beyond their control and outside the realm of choice. An opposing tradition, which finds current support among scientists and scholars as well as members of the general public, is that so-called addictive behavior reflects an ordinary choice just like any other and that the concept of addiction is a myth. The editors and authors of this book tend to take neither view. There has been an increasing recognition in recent literature on addiction that restricting possible conceptions of it to either of these extreme positions is unhelpful and is retarding progress on understanding the nature of addiction and what could be done about it.

This book contains a range of views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and the law on what exactly this middle ground between free choice and no choice consists of and what its implications are for theory, practice and policy on addiction. The result amounts to a profound change in our thinking on addiction and how its devastating consequences can be ameliorated.

Addiction and Choice is a thought provoking new volume for all those with an interest in this global issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198727224
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2016
Pages:	518
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Nick Heather, Emeritus Professor of Alcohol & Other Drug Studies, Northumbria University,Gabriel Segal, Professor of Philosophy, King's College, London

Nick Heather is Emeritus Professor of Alcohol & Other Drug Studies at Northumbria University. After working as a clinical psychologist in the NHS, he developed the Addictive Behaviours Research Group at the University of Dundee. In 1987 he became founding Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. He returned to the UK in 1994 as Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Newcastle City Health NHS Trust and as Director of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies. He took up his present position on retirement from the NHS in 2003. He has published over 500 scientific articles, books, book chapters and other publications, with an emphasis on the treatment of alcohol problems and alcohol brief interventions.

Gabriel Segal has a B.A. in Philosophy (first class honours) from University College London (1981), a B. Phil. (with overall distinction) from the University of Oxford (1983) and a PhD in Philosophy from M.I.T. (1987). He was Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987-89). He was Lecturer, Reader, then Professor of Philosophy at King's College, London (1989-present) and was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading (2012-2103). He is author (with Richard K. Larson) of Knowledge of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantic Theory MIT Press (1995); A Slim Book about Narrow Content, MIT Press (2000) and Twelve Steps to Psychological Good Health and Serenity: a Guide, Grosvenor House Publishing (2013).

Table of Contents

Section I: Introduction1. On defining addiction, Nick HeatherSection II: PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS2. How do you know you have a drug problem? The role of knowledge of negative consequences in explaining drug choice in humans and rats, Hanna Pickard and Serge H. Ahmed3. Addiction: the pleasures and perils of operant behavior, Bennett Foddy4. Willing Addicts? Drinkers, Dandies, Druggies and other Dionysians, Owen Flanagan5. Failures of Rationality and Self-Knowledge in Addiction, Thomas Crowther6. Normal and Addictive Desires, David Papineau and Patrick Butlin7. Addiction, Compulsion, and Weakness of the Will: A Dual-Process Perspective, Edmund Henden8. Addiction as a form of akrasia, Nick HeatherSECTION III: PERSPECTIVES FROM NEUROSCIENCE9. Compulsion and choice in addiction, Richard Holton10. Choice in Addiction: A Neural Tug-of-War Between Impulse and Insight, Marc D. Lewis11. Assessing drug choice in human addiction: Costs, benefits, and findings from current research paradigms, Scott J. Moeller and Rita Z. Goldstein12. The role of the insula in goal-directed drug seeking and choice in addiction, Nasir H. Naqvi and Antoine BecharaSECTION IV: PERSPECTIVES FROM BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY13. Palpating the elephant: Current theories of addiction innlight of hyperbolic delay discounting, George Ainslie14. Addiction as social choice, Howard Rachlin15. Nonconscious motivational influences on cognitive processes in addictive behaviors, W. Miles Cox, Eric Klinger, Javad S. Fadardi16. Self-regulation, controlled processes, and the treatment of addiction, Andrew J. Vonasch, Heather M. Maranges, and Roy F. BaumeisterSECTION V: IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT, PREVENTION, AND PUBLIC HEALTH17. The Blindfold of Addiction, Beth Burgess18. Behavioral Economics as a Framework for Brief Motivational Interventions to Reduce Addictive Behaviors, James G. Murphy, Ashley A. Dennhardt, and Ali M. Yurasek19. Role of Choice Biases and Choice Architecture in Behavioral Economic Strategies to Reduce Addictive Behaviors, Jalie A. Tucker, Susan D. Chandler, and JeeWon Cheong20. How an Addict's Power of Choice is Lost and can be Regained, Gabriel M. A. SegalSECTION VI IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF ADDICTION AND FOR LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR21. What addicts can teach us about addiction: A natural history approach, Gene M. Heyman and Verna Mims22. How a stigmatic structure enslaves addicts, Beth Burgess23. Addiction, Choice and Criminal Law, Stephen J. Morse24. Ambiguous terms and false dichotomies, Gabriel M. A. Segal25. Overview of addiction as a disorder of choice and future prospects, Nick Heather

Editorial Reviews

"Psychologists, philosophers, behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, curious clinicians, and researchers with a wide array of interests would find something here to challenge them. This volume provides a thoughtful, comprehensive, and rewarding analysis of the dilemma of addiction where individuals seem enslaved and yet can break the bonds of this slavery." — Carlo DiClemente, PsyCRITIQUES

From the Publisher