The Meaning of Addiction

"A tour de force, a spectacular effort of research andunderstanding. This book gives us the courage to bypass diseasenotions to deal with intrapsychic, family system, and social andcultural dynamics in addiction." (David Cook, Counseling andPsychological Services, University of Wisconsin)

"The Meaning of Addiction presented a new paradigm of addiction.The field has since become more open to the kind of complex,contextual view of addiction and compulsive behavior that itpresents. Nonetheless, it remains the classic source for expressingthis point of view." (Archie Brodsky, Department of Psychiatry,Harvard Medical School)

"Peele's theory of 'addiction as an experience' in The Meaning ofAddiction remains a pathbreaking one that offers readers anaccessible and empowering understanding of their own experiences,desires, and addictions. For understanding addictions, Peele is inmy view (and for my courses on this subject) still the source ofall sources." (Richard J. DeGrandpre, Department of Psychology, St.Michael's College, Burlington, Vermon)

"Stanton Peele's books have been instrumental in helping meunderstand my own underlying causes of addiction and how, howeverwell-intentioned the 12-step model is, it led me to focus on thewrong aspects of addiction." (Marianne Gilliam, author, HowAlcoholics Anonymous Failed Me)

"Offers a thought-provoking, insightful, and controversialperspective on the etiology of addictive behaviors. Peelechallenges the biological model and provides an importantalternative view on addictive behaviors. The Meaning of Addictionshould be required reading for students and professionals alike."(Kim Fromme, Department of Psychology, University of Texas)

"Given the extraordinary, but largely unsubstantiated, confidencethat many in both the public an professional ranks have insimplistic conceptualizations of addictive behavior, it isreassuring that sophisticated and provocative alternatives such asthose proposed by Stanton Peele in The Meaning of Addiction surfacefrom time to time. It offers hope for constructive change byputting reason an choice back into the addiction formula." (Alan R.Lang, Department of Psychology, Florida State University)

"This is a book to be read slowly, to be taken seriously, and to bedebated hotly by every professional in the field. This wholesubject is one of the major medical political and society problemsof our civilization, and we seem unable to find any workablesolution." (John A. Owen, Jr., M.D., Professor of InternalMedicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine)