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. 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, 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.

About the Author
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 of Contemporary Social Constructionism: Key Themes and Of Others Inside: Insanity, Addiction, and Belonging in America.

Reviews
"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 practice." -- Gerda Reith, author of * Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess *
"Darin Weinberg's work truly shines in its capacity to cast analytic attention on the micromechanics of human behavior at the level of language, phenomenology, and interaction and on the larger social structures that shape the situations in which these occur. Weinberg delves more deeply into the fundamental nature of addiction than anyone else I've read and reaches a set of conclusions that will thoroughly destabilize the foundational assumptions in the field. On Addiction is a provocative, pathbreaking, erudite, brilliantly argued, and beautifully written book." -- Craig Reinarman, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Legal Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz



Book Information
ISBN 9781478030829
Author Darin Weinberg
Format Paperback
Page Count 200
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 295g