Treating Addiction as a Human Process

Over the course of three decades, Dr. Khantzian has generated a deep understanding of why addicts self-medicate, why their self-care becomes compromised, and how they can be supported in their attempts to achieve recovery. The substance abuse field is now most fortunate to be given this compendium of Khantzian's work in such a well-organized and coherent form. This volume will be a most valuable resource for experienced practitioners and students alike. -- Marc Galanter
This is a landmark collection that more than fulfills the promise of its title. The reader gets an evolutionary review of Khantzian's thinking, and the huge bonus of his reflections about his own developmental process. This book is a treasure: clinically rich, theoretically creative, and comprehensive. It is particularly valuable as a model of therapist openness and self-disclosure. We see the author's adherence to psychoanalytic thought and his questions about the limits of this model. With his enlightened theories and his attitude of openness, Khantzian provides an expansive and integrated perspective of addictions treatment with great contemporary relevance. -- Stephanie Brown, Ph.D., director, The Addictions Institute, Menlo Park, CA; co-director, The Family Recovery Project, Mental Research Institute (MRI), P
As a novelist who is also working in the field of addiction medicine, I am in the unique position to comment on the clarity of Dr. Khantzian's writing, as well as its usefulness to practitioners. This book brings together the theoretical and the practical in one highly intelligent volume that can be read with pleasure and awe from beginning to end. It is the cornerstone on which the next generation of knowledge in addiction medicine will be built. -- Michael S. Palmer, M.D., associate director, Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services; clinical instructor in medicine, Tufts University S
Addiction is the most devastating mental disorder of the twentieth century and the one most neglected by psychodynamically oriented mental health professionals. Against this background, Edward Khantzian's book the work of a lifetime is an extraordinary achievement. Here is a master psychodynamic clinician exploring the internal world of the addicted person and demonstrating convincingly his self-medication hypothesis. There is no magic cure for addiction, but Khantzian's marvelously written book will give even the most experienced clinician useful new ideas about how to understand and help patients. -- Alan A. Stone M.D., Touroff-Glueck Professor of Law & Psychiatry, Harvard Law School; author of Movies and the Moral Adventure of Life