Posted by alexandra_k on November 14, 2005, at 13:47:38
In reply to Re: Very debatable » mama141, posted by SLS on November 8, 2005, at 19:57:26
> I am unprepared to label sweepingly alcoholism or addiction as being diseases. However, they are what they are. We can understand and treat them without the label of disease as long as we have an accurate description.
My difficulty with the AA model is that it ASSUMES that addictive behaviours ARE a disease. And so what that does is it promotes the idea that we do not need an unbiased investigation into the nature of addictive behaviours. (What I mean by an unbiased investigation is an investigation where both genetic and environmental factors are considered). To say that addictive behaviours ARE A DISEASE is to promote the idea that the nature of addictive behaviours has been discovered and all sorted out already, and that it has been discovered that addictive behaviours are the result of a DISEASE process. The AA party line is that the DISEASE is CHRONIC and that AA attendance and surrender to god is the ONLY WAY to achieve TOTAL ABSTINENCE which is considered to be the ONE AND ONLY GOAL that it is legitimate to have.
So the problem is... If we accept this model of addictive behaviours then why would we bother investigating the nature of addictive behaviours? We think we already know... So why would we bother?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:575263
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20051106/msgs/578644.html