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The Biology of Desire: why addiction is not a disease
Marc Lewis
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Description for The Biology of Desire: why addiction is not a disease
Paperback. Num Pages: 256 pages. BIC Classification: JMM; MMZR; PSAN. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 130 x 21. Weight in Grams: 244.
Through the vivid, true stories of five addicts, a neuroscientist explains how addiction happens in the brain, and what we can do to overcome it.
The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.
Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it’s supposed to do – seek pleasure and relief – ... Read morein a world that’s not cooperating. Brains are designed to restructure themselves with normal learning and development, but this process is accelerated in addiction when highly attractive rewards are pursued repeatedly. Lewis shows why treatment based on the disease model so often fails, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. Combining intimate human stories with clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.
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Product Details
Publisher
Scribe Publications
Place of Publication
, Australia
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
About Marc Lewis
Dr Marc Lewis is a neuroscientist and professor of developmental psychology, now teaching at Radboud University in the Netherlands after more than twenty years on faculty at the University of Toronto. He has authored or co-authored more than fifty journal articles in neuroscience and developmental psychology. Presently, he speaks and blogs on topics in addiction science, and his critically acclaimed ... Read morebook, Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: a neuroscientist examines his former life on drugs, is the first to blend memoir and science in addiction studies. Show Less
Reviews for The Biology of Desire: why addiction is not a disease
‘The most important study of addiction to be published for many years.’
The Spectator
‘A courageous and much needed voice in rethinking addiction — Lewis takes addiction out of a disease model and reframes it as a negative outcome of neuroplasticity. This model provides realistic hope, given that what has been learnt can be unlearnt by harnessing the ... Read moreprinciples of neuroplasticity. Through his intimate personal and professional knowledge of addiction, Lewis reframes our understanding of its mechanisms and nature in a way that is empowering.’
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young
author of the international bestseller The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
‘Clear, insightful, and necessary.’
Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream ‘A convincing explanation of addiction as a pattern-making mental process.’
Robert Webb
New Statesman
‘Marc Lewis provides a wonderful mix of biography, psychology, and neuroscience to explain desire and addiction in a new way. It will stimulate thinking about our approaches to addiction and desire. His writing is accessible, personal, and captivating.’
David Roland
author of How I Rescued My Brain
'This is the real story of “this is your brain on drugs”, but one that provides a refreshing, convincing alternative to the widespread traditional disease-model view of addiction. Through compelling stories of real people who struggled with various addictions, Lewis lucidly makes the case for a new science-based understanding of what causes and sustains addiction. Most important, it offers far more positivity about ways out of addiction than those offered by traditional treatment, providing hope for those struggling as well as for their loved ones.‘
Anne M. Fletcher, MS, RD
author of Sober for Good and Inside Rehab
‘[L]ooks at how addiction and brain science collide, and how understanding our brains can help addicts get out of the abyss … [A] very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.’
Richard Ferguson
Sydney Morning Herald
‘Informed by unparalleled neuroscientific insight and written with his usual flare, Marc Lewis’s The Biology of Desire effectively refutes the medical view of addiction as a primary brain disease. A bracing and informative rebuke of the muddle that now characterizes public and professional discourse on this topic.’
Dr. Gabor Maté, MD
author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
‘Highly readable and plausible illustration of current ideas about addiction from behavioural neuroscience and clinical perspectives by the use of vivid case histories.’
Trevor Robbins
Head of Psychology Department, Cambridge University
‘Marc Lewis’s new book neatly links current thinking about addiction with neuroscience theory and artfully selected biographies. Ex-addicts, we learn, are not “cured”, rather they have become more connected to others, wiser, and more in touch with their own humanity. This is a hopeful message that has, as Lewis demonstrates, the advantage of also being true.’
Gene Heyman
author of Addiction: Disorder of Choice
‘Whether you are looking for a foundation in the neuroscience of addiction, guidelines for recovery or just hope that recovery is possible, it’s all here. The scientific information is presented in the context of day-to-day behavior and the lives of individuals you will come to care about. You’ll learn more about neuroscience (and human development and psychology) than you may have thought possible. Informed by this book, you’ll see how neuroscience explains addiction as a part of life, rather than a mysterious entity only experts can understand.’
Tom Horvath
President of Practical Recovery and SMART Recovery, and author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling & Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions
‘[The book's] success lies in its ability to communicate complex ideas in a way that will engage you and move you and sometimes make you laugh … a very readable, often touching, gateway into the universe of neuroscience and the shadowland of addiction.’
Esperance Express
‘Lewis pares down the scientific jargon and shares about the brain and its learning processes in clear, easy to understand terms ... Lewis’ book is weak with regard to two areas: treatment recommendations and lack of clarity about the implications his work could have for addicts seeking treatment.’
New York Journal of Books
‘I can see what Lewis is trying to do here, as he struggles to reconcile our varying perspectives on addiction. I think he has found a useful balance: Yes, we are biological creatures – but biology is not destiny.’
Globe and Mail
‘A thought-provoking, industry-minded, and polarizing perspective on the neurocircuitry of human desire and compulsion.’
Kirkus
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