This book brings cutting edge neuroscience and psychology into dialogue with philosophical reflection to illuminate the loss of control experienced by addicts, and thereby cast light on ordinary agency and the way in which it sometimes goes wrong.

This collection of original essays by members of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior offers innovative perspectives on self-control over the use of habituating substances and related types of behavior. The authors review the powerful social-psychological influences of normative rules and interpersonal circumstances in developing individual capacities for self-control in, for example, the use of heroin. They also look at experimental contingencies under which animals engage in self-harming behavior; the induction of exaggerated consumption behavior, such as massive fluid drinking by laboratory rats; and studies of environmental and genetic influences on neurophysiological sensitivity to and preference for alcohol in laboratory mouse strains. The concluding chapter presents an unorthodox perspective on ways of self-governing the consumption of cigarettes and other substances, recognizing the peculiarities of the processes of human choice. In his introduction, volume editor Peter Levison contrasts the diverse approaches reflected in the book with the common-sense notion of self-control.

This book proposes a new science of self-control based on the principles of behavioral psychology and economics. Claiming that insight and self-knowledge are insufficient for controlling one's behavior, Howard Rachlin argues that the only way to achieve such control--and ultimately happiness--is through the development of harmonious patterns of behavior. Most personal problems with self-control arise because people have difficulty delaying immediate gratification for a better future reward. The alcoholic prefers to drink now. If she is feeling good, a drink will make her feel better. If she is feeling bad, a drink will make her feel better. The problem is that drinking will eventually make her feel worse. This sequence--the consistent choice of a highly valued particular act (such as having a drink or a smoke) that leads to a low-valued pattern of acts--is called "the primrose path." To avoid it, the author presents a strategy of "soft commitment," consisting of the development of valuable patterns of behavior that bridge over individual temptations. He also proposes, from economics, the concept of the substitutability of "positive addictions," such as social activity or exercise, for "negative addictions," such as drug abuse or overeating. Self-control may be seen as the interaction with one's own future self. Howard Rachlin shows that indeed the value of the whole--of one's whole life--is far greater than the sum of the values of its individual parts.

This book brings together a set of papers, many which grow out of presentations at a conference in Oxford in 2009 on addiction and self-control, by a set of thinkers who are united in believing that understanding agency and failures of agency requires engagement with the best science. The papers it collects attempts to illuminate the mechanisms involved in addiction and thereby to understand to what degree and in what ways actions driven by addiction are controlled by the agent, express his or her will or values, and the extent to which addicts are responsible for what they do. Some of the papers focus on the neuropsychological mechanisms involved, especially on the role of the midbrain dopamine system. Others focus on features of the behavior and the extent to which we can infer psychological mechanisms from behavior. The authors debate the best interpretation of the scientific evidence and how the scientific evidence bears upon, or can only be understand in the light of, philosophical theorizing about agency, control and responsibility.

This book is the ultimate guide to breaking free from the Matrix and living with self-awareness, self-mastery, and freedom. Freedom from addiction is freedom to Be your most authentic self. The true you is capable of epic love, epic health, and epic peace of mind. As author of Gene Keys Richard Rudd states, "this book is not really another book about addiction. It isn't even a book about how to break addiction. It goes much further than this. Ronnie grounds his reader in a simple, controversial but undeniable truth - that we all are addicts in one form or another. To live without addiction presupposes a high level of awareness and even spiritual development. As I read through these pages, I began to realize subtle places in my own life where addictive tendencies still linger, like stubborn lichens clinging to the rocks on mountaintops." Addiction is commonly associated with the abuse of alcohol, drugs, or pornography. However, Ronnie shows us how addiction creeps into our lives with anything from social media to anxiety and overwork, from addiction to codependency or even control. Learn how addiction tethers us to emotional, spiritual, and neurological roller coasters. These highs and lows prevent us from a steady ascension in our spiritual consciousness and overall happiness. Above all, Ronnie provides us with hope that we can alter addictive behaviors that may have plagued us for decades in merely days...Most excitingly, you will learn in this book how to transmute addictive behaviors into pure consciousness. Take a close look at your physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. Ronnie has been publishing podcasts, books, and courses in the realm of elevating consciousness through health since 2018.Check out more of his books here on Amazon by Following Ronnie Landis the author. Join Ronnie's blossoming Self-Mastery Tribe on Facebook at www.AFLSupport.com where you will connect with other high-vibration men and women supporting one another in a life of freedom, self-mastery and true inner peace.Please also join us at www.TheAddictionFreeLifestyle.com where you can learn more.

Addiction focuses on the emergence, nature, and persistence of addictive behavior, as well as the efforts of addicts to overcome their condition. Do addicts act of their own free will, or are they driven by forces beyond their control? Do structured treatment programs offer more hope for recovery? What causes relapses to occur? Recent scholarship has focused attention on the voluntary aspects of addiction, particularly the role played by choice. Addiction draws upon this new research and the investigations of economists, psychiatrists, philosophers, neuropharmacologists, historians, and sociologists to offer an important new approach to our understanding of addictive behavior. The notion that addicts favor present rewards over future gains or penalties echoes throughout the chapters in Addiction. The effect of cultural values and beliefs on addicts, and on those who treat them, is also explored, particularly in chapters by Elster on alcoholism and by Acker on American heroin addicts in the 1920s and 1930s. Essays by Gardner and by Waal and Mørland discuss the neurobiological roots of addiction Among their findings are evidence that addictive drugs also have an important effect on areas of the central nervous system unrelated to euphoria or dysphoria, and that tolerance and withdrawal phenomena vary greatly from drug to drug. The plight of addicts struggling to regain control of their lives receives important consideration in Addiction. Elster, Skog, and O'Donoghue and Rabin look at self-administered therapies ranging from behavioral modifications to cognitive techniques, and discuss conditions under which various treatment strategies work. Drug-based forms of treatment are discussed by Gardner, drawing on work that suggests that parts of the population have low levels of dopamine, inducing a tendency toward sensation-seeking. There are many different explanations for the impulsive, self-destructive behavior that is addiction. By bringing the triple perspective of neurobiology, choice, and culture to bear on the phenomenon, Addiction offers a unique and valuable source of information and debate on a problem of world-wide proportions.

Collection of papers written by recognised experts in the field of addictive behaviour. The book presents a new approach to understanding such behaviour based on the premise that it represents a breakdown in self-regulatory processes. Includes bibliographies.