The Addiction Experience
About this book
The Addiction Experience is Stanton Peele's remarkably prescient description of the inner experience of addiction. Originally published Canadian Addiction Research Foundation's ARF Journal, from which it was translated and spread worldwide in French and other languages. It was then picked up by the Hazelden Foundation, where it became a best-seller for nearly a decade, until the Foundation discontinued its publication due to objections to Stanton's nondisease approach. The Addiction Experience is the classic explanation of how the object of addiction is an experience associated with a substance or other involvement (such as love, sex, or gambling) to which a person becomes attached despite its increasingly negative effects. Its experiential essence determines every aspect of addiction—from its often temporary nature, to its prevalence in certain circumstances (e.g., Vietnam), to the special addictiveness of painkillers—as well as the path to recovery. Praise for Stanton Peele’s Work “Stanton Peele is one of the most insightful thinkers about addiction anywhere, ever. A beautiful writer, with so much to teach all of us.” —Johann Hari, author of Chasing the The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs “Stanton Peele is a true pioneer of addiction research and theory. His ideas must be reckoned with by anyone who is serious about understanding addiction.” —Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Why Addiction Is a Learning Disorder and What to Do About It; neuroscientist journalist, Time Magazine “At a time when addiction is being trumpeted as a ‘brain disease,’ Peele slashes through the hypermedicalized rhetoric to get to the human core of addiction and recovery.” —Sally Satel, MD, coauthor of The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience; Yale University School of Medicine “Stanton Peele’s work prompted me to look beyond the flashy headlines and the majority position.” —Carl Hart, Ph.D., Columbia University Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry; author of High A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society “I read Love and Addiction as soon as it was published. It was probably the first book I ever read which analyzed addiction in a way that made sense to me and echoed what I knew from my work. It still reads absolutely true as an understanding of addictive behavior all these years later.” —Rowdy Yates, Ph.D., Department of Addiction Studies, University of Stirling “The modern understanding of addiction and recovery begins with Love and Addiction.” —Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP; President, Practical Recovery and SMART Recovery “Love and Addiction is one of those rare books that demonstrates that true insight transcends politics, intellectual fashion, and even time itself.” —Christopher Ryan, Ph.D., & Cacilda Jethá, M.D., authors of the New York Times best-seller, Sex at Dawn “There were two books that really had a significant impact on me on the issue of One was Andrew Weil’s book, The Natural Mind. The second book that really made an impact on me was Stanton Peele’s The Meaning of Addiction.” —Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D.