Criticism of The Addiction Model
Critics of the addiction model, most notably Thomas Szasz, have claimed that the concept of addiction is not normatively neutral, but inherently includes a normative component that is arguably out of place in scientific discourse. Szasz cites, for example, Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Theraputics, which defines "drug abuse" as "the use, usually by self-administration, of any drug in a manner that deviates from the approved medical or social patterns within a given culture."In investigating the history of the word "addiction," Szasz finds that until the twentieth century, the term meant "simply a strong inclination toward certain kinds of conduct, with little or no pejorative meaning attached to it."The Oxford English Dictionary includes examples of addiction "to civil affairs" and "to useful reading."Szasz observes that the term has transformed over time into a "stigmatizing label" with "pejorative meaning."Szasz draws an analogy between this stigmatization of minority psychopharmacological habits and the stigmatization of minority sexual habits
Just as socially disapproved pharmacological behavior constitutes "drug abuse," and is officially recognized as an illness by a medical profession that is a licensed agency of the state, so socially disapproved sexual behavior constitutes a "perversion" and is also officially recognized as an illness; and so, more generally, socially disapproved personal behavior of any kind constitutes "mental illness."
Szasz's views have been criticized for failing to account for the effect of physiological dependence.
Read more about this topic: Addiction
Famous quotes containing the words criticism of, criticism, addiction and/or model:
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what is called damnation.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The best way to teach a child restraint and generosity is to be a model of those qualities yourself. If your child sees that you want a particular item but refrain from buying it, either because it isn’t practical or because you can’t afford it, he will begin to understand restraint. Likewise, if you donate books or clothing to charity, take him with you to distribute the items to teach him about generosity.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)