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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
- in 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.
Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into
and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the
"disease model" of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to
recovery.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 addiction is not a disease, and shows
why 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-in 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.
Marc Lewis's relationship with drugs began in a New England
boarding school where, as a bullied and homesick fifteen-year-old,
he made brief escapes from reality by way of cough medicine,
alcohol, and marijuana. In Berkeley, California, in its hippie
heyday, he found methamphetamine and LSD and heroin he sniffed
nitrous oxide in Malaysia and frequented Calcutta's opium dens.
Ultimately, though, his journey took him where it takes most
addicts: into a life of desperation, deception, and crime.But
unlike most addicts, Lewis recovered to become a developmental
psychologist and researcher in neuroscience. In Memoirs of an
Addicted Brain , he applies his professional expertise to a study
of his former self, using the story of his own journey through
addiction to tell the universal story of addictions of every kind.
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