On Addiction - Insights from History, Ethnography, and Critical Theory

Mainstream addiction science either sees addiction as a biomedical disease that renders one incapable of self-control, or as a voluntary practice engaged in freely. In On Addiction, Darin Weinberg shows how this dynamic is deeply influenced by a series of binaries (free will/determinism, mind/body, objectivity/subjectivity) that hinder our understanding of addiction. Here, he offers a new theorization of addiction in which he breaks down these contradictions and incompatibilities, calling into question the taken-for-granted distinction between the “biological” and the “social”. To the extent that it is understood as a loss of self-control over one’s behavior, addiction, Weinberg contends, requires a supple theoretical framework that provides for movements into and out of self-control, the social and natural processes that influence these movements, the historical contexts within which they occur and the ethical ramifications of taking them seriously