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The Meaning of Addiction

Compulsive Experience and Its Interpretation

Stanton Peele

The Meaning of Addiction: An Unconventional View (1998 edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998 (originally published, MA: Heath, 1985) ISBN 0-7879-4382-7 [pbk.]

To Isidor Chein and David McClelland—
two who showed the way

Contents

Preface

Preface to 1998 Edition

1. The Concept of Addiction
   Opiate Addiction in the United States and the Western World
   Divergent Evidence about Narcotic Addiction
   Nonbiological Factors in Addiction
   The Nature of Addiction
2. The American Image of Alcohol: Does Liquor Have the Power to Corrupt and Control?
   The Disease of Alcoholism
   Historical, Social, Ethnic, and Economic Factors in Alcoholism in the United States
   The Social Science Challenge to the Disease Theory
   Controlled-Drinking Therapy for Alcoholism
3. Theories of Addiction
   Stanton Peele and Bruce K. Alexander
   Genetic Theories
   Exposure Theories: Biological Models
   Exposure Theories: Conditioning Models
   Adaptation Theories
   The Requirements of a Successful Theory of Addiction
4. Adult, Infant, and Animal Addiction
   Bruce K. Alexander, Stanton Peele, Patricia E. Hadaway,
   Stanley J. Morse, Archie Brodsky, and Barry L. Beyerstein
   The Effect on the Infant of Mother's Drug Use
   The Addicted Animal
   Animal Narcotics Use in Rat Park
   What Causes Animals to Accept Narcosis?
   The Implications of Infant and Animal Research for Conceptions of Addiction
5. Addiction to an Experience
   Elements of the Addictive Experience
   Susceptibility to Addiction and the Choice of Addictive Object: Social and Cultural Factors
   Susceptibility to and Choice of Addiction: Situational Factors
   Susceptibility to and Choice of Addiction: Individual Factors
   Susceptibility to and Choice of Addiction: Developmental Factors
   The Nature of Addiction: The Addiction Cycle
6. The Impaired Society
   The Narcotic Connection—Supply and Demand
   The Negative Effects of the Belief in Chemical Dependence
   Can We Treat Away the Drug Problem?
   The Alcoholism and Chemical Dependence Industry
   Spreading Diseases
   The Cure for Addiction

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