Opposition to the disease concept of addiction ignores the fact that consuming alien chemicals alters brain function. Chemical dependence is more than a behavioral addiction.

But a number of scholars, myself included, question the usefulness of the concept of addiction as a brain disease.

A person is not “recovered,” but “in recovery.” Understanding the disease concept of addiction is critically important, both to the drug addict or alcoholic and to that person’s family.

Its success as a concept lay with its medicalization, both as a self-help movement in terms of self-diagnosis, and as a rapidly growing industry of therapists on hand to deal with the new disease.

But a number of scholars, myself included, question the usefulness of the concept of addiction as a brain disease.

A neuroscientist takes on the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s assertion that addiction is a brain disease—a classification he finds not only flawed but dangerous.

The concept of addiction as a disease of the brain challenges deeply ingrained values about self-determination and personal responsibility that frame drug use as a voluntary, hedonistic act.

But a number of scholars, myself included, question the usefulness of the concept of addiction as a brain disease.

The Disease Concept of Alcohol Addiction Before 1934, the idea was that alcoholism was a moral weakness.

Addiction-as-disease is in some ways a thoroughly American idea. It ties together how we approach medicine (with a precisely defined target and a definitive program to fight it) and our proudly ...

It is unfortunate that the word addiction ever became associated with alcohol and drug dependence. The disease of alcohol and drug dependence is altogether different from a mere proclivity.