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

Stanton Peele

©1989, 1995 by Stanton Peele
ISBN # 0-028-74014-9 (pbk)
published by Lexington/Jossey-Bass

A barbarian . . . [is one who] thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
—George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

Views on Diseasing of America

Contents

• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Original Preface and Acknowledgements

1. Why Addiction is Not a Disease
   And Why We Should Care that It Not Be Treated as Such
2. Alcoholism in America
   How We Discovered that Alcohol Is Addictive and that So Many People Are Alcoholics
3. Who Says What the Truths about Alcoholism Are?
4. Transforming the Addict into a Role Model, and the Person into an Addict
5. The Addiction Treatment Industry
6. What Is Addiction, and How Do People Get It?
   Values, Intentions, Self-Restraint, and Environments
7. How People Quit Addictions, Usually on Their Own
8. Our Confusion over Law, Morality, and Addiction
9. How We Lost Control of Our World
10. Creating a World Worth Living In
    Community, Efficacy, and Values

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