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The Globalization of Addiction Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)

The Globalization of Addiction By Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)

Summary

Addiction is increasing all around the world, and the conventional remedies don't work. The Globalization of Addiction argues that the cause of this failure to control addiction is that past treatments have focused too single-mindedly on the afflicted individual addict. This book presents a radical rethink about the nature of addiction.

The Globalization of Addiction Summary

The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit by Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)

'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.

The Globalization of Addiction 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 *

About Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)

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.

Table of Contents

PART I - ROOTS OF ADDICTION IN FREE-MARKET SOCIETY; PART II - THE INTERACTION OF ADDICTION AND SOCIETY

Additional information

NGR9780199588718
9780199588718
0199588716
The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit by Bruce K. Alexander (Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada)
New
Paperback
Oxford University Press
2010-03-04
496
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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