Diseasing of America: Addiction Treatment Out of Control

Challenges the myth that alcoholism and drug use are biochemical diseases necessitating medical treatment, treatment that has become big business, and emphasizes our strength and capacity to change by choice

Alcoholism and drug-taking may be addictions, but they are not diseases, maintains clinical psychologist Peele. In a plainspoken and courageous critique that goes against current medical fashion, the coauthor of Love and Addiction attacks the "addiction-as-disease" model promoted by Alcoholics Anonymous, drug treatment centers and others. He asserts that such programs blunt a substance abuser's sense of personal responsibility and, in so doing, may actually worsen her or his chances for recovery. He further argues that behavioral, family, aversive and "community reinforcement" therapies--or no therapy at all--work as well as AA. Peele is appalled by the extension of the disease model of addiction to such activities as overeating, smoking, compulsive sex and gambling. His hard-hitting attack on he "addiction treatment industry" supplies an effective antidote to what he sees as a breakdown of personal will, social support and a sense of community.
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