Life on the Rocks: Finding Meaning in Addiction and Recovery

Addiction and recovery are, at their core, about the meaning of life. Life on the Rocks is the first book to address addiction and recovery from a Western philosophical perspective, offering a powerful set of tools sharpened over millennia. It introduces some of the core concepts and vexing questions of philosophy to help addicts and those affected by their addiction examine and perhaps transform the meaning they make of their lives.

Without assuming any familiarity with philosophy, Dr. O’Connor illuminates issues all addicts and their loved ones face: self-identity, moral responsibility, self-knowledge and self-deception, free will and determinism, fatalism, the nature of God, and their relations to others. Life on the Rocks is an indispensable guide to the deeply philosophical concerns at the heart of every addict’s struggle.

Peg O’Connor, PhD, is professor of philosophy and gender, women, and sexuality studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. She is the author of the popular Psychology Today blog “Philosophy Stirred, Not Shaken” and contributor to the Pro Talk series at Rehabs.com.

is Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota. She is the author of the popular Psychology Today blog “Philosophy Stirred, Not Shaken” and contributor to the Pro Talk series at Rehabs.com. In her writing, which has appeared in the New York Times and the Huffington Post, she uses philosophy to illuminate the complexities of addiction as a lived experience. As an A.A. Heckman Fellow at the Hazelden Foundation she explored the influence of philosopher/psychologist/physician William James on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Peg has given talks to treatment professionals domestically and abroad, and is the author of Morality and Our Complicated Form of Life (2008) and Oppression and Responsibility (2002), as well as coeditor of Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein with Naomi Scheman (2002) and Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance with Lisa Heldke (2004). A recovering alcoholic for more than 27 years and a philosophy professor for 19, philosophy helped the author get and stay sober. She lives in St. Peter, Minnesota.