Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and The Boston
Globe An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of
addiction-a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply
misunderstood despite having touched countless lives-by an
addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and
himself "Carl Erik Fisher's The Urge is the best-written and most
incisive book I've read on the history of addiction. In the midst
of an overdose crisis that grows worse by the hour and has vexed
America for centuries, Fisher has given us the best prescription of
all: understanding. He seamlessly blends a gripping historical
narrative with memoir that doesn't self-aggrandize; the result is a
full-throated argument against blaming people with substance use
disorder. The Urge is a propulsive tour de force that is as healing
as it is enjoyable to read." -Beth Macy, author of Dopesick Even
after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy
still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best
way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik
Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and
alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon
that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understanding-let
alone addressing effectively. As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh
from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own
addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to
make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for
generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that
the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a
centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and
control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including
well before the advent of modern science and medicine. A rich,
sweeping account that probes not only medicine and science but also
literature, religion, philosophy, and public policy, The Urge
illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has
persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be
human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people
who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the
ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists,
researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who
have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the
treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for
many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning
with our history of addiction, he argues-our successes and our
failures-can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain
threatened by its hold. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history
of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and
a clinician's urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and
compassionate view of one of society's most intractable challenges.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
