The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual Path - Hardcover

Grof, Christina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062503146 ISBN 13: 9780062503145

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1993

Synopsis

Argues that the craving for a spiritual identity is often misdirected towards addictive substances, and explains how to find the sacred dimensions of everyday life

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A provocative reevaluation of addictive behavior that considers it not within the prevalent ``disease model,'' as California-based therapist Grof puts it, but within the context of a universal need for spiritual satisfaction. Grof's understanding of addiction is firsthand and hard-won: She's a recovering alcoholic and draws on her experience (``The day I hit bottom with my alcoholism, I was brought to my knees'') to ground what's sometimes an otherwise heady, theory-laden argument. The heart of the argument is that society's growing tendency to consider all addiction--as well as the ``attachments'' (to money, prestige, other people, etc.) that characterize much human behavior--as disease ``paints a picture of humanity as being universally sick.'' Instead, Grof proposes ``a wellness model for the understanding and treatment of addictions.'' That model--worked out with reference to spiritual teachings from Hinduism to Jung- -posits that we each consist of two ``selves'': a ``deeper,'' perhaps divine, self that's our original nature, and a grafted-on ``small self,'' equivalent to the ego. From prenatal days onward, Grof says, we're pushed by outside, often abusive, forces away from the greater self and into the smaller self. Yet we retain a ``craving'' for the deeper self, which most of us try to slake through inappropriate means--through the pursuit of wealth, for example, or, in the case of addicts, through drug highs. Addictive behavior thus springs from a healthy impulse to return to the deeper self--which, in fact, can be recovered only through spiritual practices (including, apparently, Grof's own ``Holotropic Breathwork,'' which she touts here). Addicts probably should work with the Twelve Steps, which the author reads as a spiritual blueprint, though one rife with pitfalls. Grof's two-selves model of human nature is as old as the myth of the Fall; but her application of it to addiction is inspired, well argued (though more case histories would have enlivened the text), and alight with hope and promise. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Grof, a San Francisco Bay Area transpersonal psychologist, argues that addiction is a manifestation of profound spiritual yearning--the "thirst for wholeness" which Jung defined as a fundamental dilemma of being human. To escape the pain of this craving and fill the emptiness it implies, Grof suggests, many people adopt addictive behaviors, which only further parch the soul. The thirst can be quelled, she advises, only by moving through the emptiness to spiritual understanding. Drawing from 12-step programs, from Jungian and humanistic psychology and her own experiences as a recovering alcoholic, Grof offers a thoughtful, compassionate self-help guide.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0062503146
• ISBN 13: 9780062503145
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 283