On Addiction: Insights from History, Ethnography, and Critical Theory [Hardcover]

Mainstream addiction science sees addiction either as a biomedical disease that renders one incapable of self-control or as a voluntary practice engaged in freely. InOn 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, for the social and natural processes that influence these movements, for the historical contexts within which they occur, and for the ethical ramifications of taking them seriously. To create this framework, Weinberg brings together history, ethnography, and critical theory as well as the clinical and social sciences. In this way, Weinberg takes a more holistic approach to examining the fundamental nature and ethics of addiction.USDarin Weinberg offers a new theorization of addiction that incorporates history, ethnography, and critical theory as the means to break the current impasse in mainstream addiction science.Darin Weinberg is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and a Professorial Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. He is the author ofContemporary Social Constructionism: Key ThemesandOf Others Inside: Insanity, Addiction, and Belonging in America.“Beautifully written and impressive in its range and scope. A profound meditation on our understandings of the meaning, nature, and experience of addiction; dazzling in its intellectual scope and quietly radical in its implications for pralC)