Myth of Addiction: Second Edition

237 Pages·1997·1.32 MB·English

by  John Booth Davies

The Myth of Addiction
Second Edition
John Booth Davies
University of Strathclyde, UK

harwood academic publishers
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Copyright ©1992, 1997 OPA (Overseas Publishers
Association) N.V. Published by license under the
Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The
Gordon and Breach Publishing Group.

All rights reserved.

First Edition published 1992 Second Edition published
1997 Second printing 2000

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Davies, John Booth
The myth of addiction. — 2nd ed.
1. Narcotic habit
2. Title
362.2'93

ISBN 90-5702-237-0
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 9
PROLOGUE 11
1 ATTRIBUTION THEORY: EXPLAINING EXPLANATION
17
THE BASES OF ATTRIBUTION THEORY 19
ATTRIBUTION AS LAWFUL EXPLANATION 20
THE WORK OF MICHOTTE AND HEIDER ON THE PERCEPTION OF
CAUSALITY 24
EXTENDING THE FRAMEWORK OF ATTRIBUTION 28
2 ATTRIBUTION THEORY AND ATTRIBUTIONAL
RESEARCH 29
LOCUS OF CONTROL AND COGNITIVE STYLE 35
WITKIN'S STUDIES OF FIELD DEPENDENCE 37
INADEQUACY EXPLANATIONS OF DRUG USE 41
3 VOLITIONAL AND NON-VOLITIONAL EXPLANATIONS
45
THE PREFERENCE FOR EXTERNAL EXPLANATIONS 47
THE BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH OF B.F.SKINNER 49
THE BEHAVIOURIST LEGACY 54
ADDICTION AS SKINNER BOX 58
4 ADDICTION, WITHDRAWALS AND CRAVING 61
ADDICTION AS DISEASE 71
CRAVING; 'HAVING TO HAVE', OR 'JUST WANTING'? 73
WITHDRAWALS 77
CURES FOR TAKING DRUGS 80
IN CONCLUSION 81
5 PHARMACOLOGY AND COMPULSION 82
SELF-REPORTS FROM HUMANS 88
6 THE PROBLEM OF 'ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCES' 91
THE ISSUE OF 'REAL' AND 'BOGUS' ADDICTS 94
THE COMPULSIVE GAMBLER 96
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS AND GAMBLERS ANONYMOUS 101
7 DISEASE AS THE PREFERRED EXPLANATION FOR
'BADNESS.' 105
DYSLEXIA AS FUNCTIONAL EXPLANATION 108
DYSLEXIA: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW 110
8 THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE: METHODOLOGICAL
PROBLEMS 113
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: TRUE OR FALSE? 114
INTERVIEWER EFFECTS 118
RETROSPECTIVE RECALL; RETRIEVAL OR CONSTRUCTION? 122
PEOPLE'S PROPENSITY TO MAKE SENSE OF THEIR LIVES 129
9 ATTRIBUTION: A DYNAMIC APPROACH TO HOW
PEOPLE EXPLAIN THEIR ACTIONS 143
ATTRIBUTION AND THE EXPURGATION OF GUILT 143
ATTRIBUTIONAL 'VERDICTS' 145
AN ATTRIBUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR ADDICTION 149
ADDICTION: A STABLE/INTERNAL ATTRIBUTION 151
ATTRIBUTIONAL BIAS 153
THE ACTOR-OBSERVER EFFECT 155
SELF-SERVING BIAS 157
POSITIVITY BIAS 159
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE POSSIBILITY OF PARADOXICAL
ATTRIBUTION 159
BELIEF IN GOD: A FUNCTIONAL, EXTERNAL, PARADOXICAL
LOCUS 166
THE THIRD STREAM 167
10 FUNCTIONAL EXPLANATIONS FOR DRUG USE 169
J. RICHARD EISER (1977 ET SEQ) 170
DAVIES AND BAKER (1988) 175
COGGANS AND DAVIES (1988) 176
MCALLISTER AND DAVIES (1991) 179
OGDEN AND WARDLE (1990) 182
HOOD (1988) 185
EDWARDS, BROWN, DUCKITT, OPPENHEIMER, SHEEHAN AND
TAYLOR (1987) 187
HAMMERSLEY, MORRISON, DAVIES AND FORSYTH (1990) 191
MCCONNOCHIE (1996) 198
THE WIDENING PERSPECTIVE 199
11 A CONTEXT FOR DRUG PROBLEMS 204
ATTRIBUTIONS AND LIES 205
WHERE DOES TRUTH LIE? 207
DRUG USE AND CONTEXT 208
DRUG USE AND AIDS/HIV 210
LIVING WITH DRUGS 213
ADDICTION: A SYSTEMS PROBLEM 214
ADDICTION: EXPLODING THE MYTH 217
REFERENCES 221
I wrote this book because 1 wanted to. Nobody made me
do it,
and I did it on purpose.
I was certainly not forced into it by circumstances.
Finally, I wrote it for me. It would be dishonest to attribute it
to
some other person.
Preface to the Second Edition
The first edition of The Myth of Addiction appeared in
1992, and expressed my conviction that the view taken of the
state we describe as 'addicted' is too mechanistic and too
remote from the realm of human desires and purposes, too
often. Instead of a view of addiction problems as deriving from
the interaction of a substance, a setting, and the aims and
goals of those who use the substance (Le. a view that sees
addiction as something that people do), the prevailing notions
tend to see addiction as something that happens to people;
that is, as something imposed from outside by the inescapable
pharmacological properties of an alien substance, rather than
as a state negotiated through the more understandable
channels of human desire and intention. Central to this
argument were certain observed facts concerning attribution
theory, and the ways in which people explain their actions.
From the standpoint of functional attribution, the reasons
people give for their drug use are not, and never can be, hard
or so-called 'objective' data on why drug use happens.
Consequently, the use of such statements as criteria against
which to validate physiological or other measures, or as
factual statements from which to derive diagnostic criteria, is
probably misconceived. The Myth of Addiction argues that
such explanations are primarily functional. Explaining one's
behaviour as either within, or outwith, one's control has either
positive or negative consequences according to the situation
and in a climate of moral and legal censure it makes sense to
choose the latter.
9