Synopses & Reviews
The psychiatric establishment in the Western world has unanimously branded addiction a brain disease. And the idea that an addict has an incurable illness, as opposed to a contemptible moral weakness, has served an historically important role in changing how addiction is understood, researched, and treated throughout the world.
But as renowned developmental neuroscientist and recovered addict Marc Lewis argues in this illuminating, compelling, likely controversial book, addiction is not in fact a disease. Addiction, whether to drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, sex, or cigarettes, is rather a developmental learning process resulting from the normal functioning of the human brain.
Through vividly rendered, compassionate stories of five addicts, interpreted in the light of state-of-the-art neuroscientific knowledge, Lewis shows how the compulsion to use arises in a brain that is highly efficient in pursuing singular goals. He reveals addiction as an unfortunate twist of fate for a brain doing what its designed to doseek pleasure and reliefin a world thats not cooperating. He shows that recovery from addiction is indeed possible, and that it is nothing like remission from a disease.
The Biology of Desire is vital and enlightening reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction themselves, in their families, or as a medical or treatment professional. It illuminates a path to more effective treatment for addicts, and outlines the essential requirements for individual recovery. Combining clearly rendered scientific explanation with insight, compassion, and even humor, Lewis boldly challenges us all to re-examine our approach to addiction, and whether the metaphors we've used to explain it have now become obstacles to healing.
Review
"A courageous and much needed voice in rethinking addictionLewis takes addiction out of a disease model and reframes it as a negative outcome of neuroplasticitysimply put our brains fundamental nature to change as a result of learning and experience. This model provides realistic hope given that what has been learnt can be unlearnt by harnessing the principles of neuroplasticity. Through his intimate personal and professional knowledge of addiction Lewis reframes our understanding of its mechanisms and nature in a way that is empowering and what is most promisingthe concept that what has been learnt can be unlearnt by harnessing the principles of neuroplasticity."
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, author of the International Best Seller, The Woman Who Changed Her BrainReview
The Biology of Desidre says a lot about the brain mechanisms underpinning addiction but, to its credit, does not stop there. With minor exceptions, we do not help addicts (and they do not help themselves) by ministering directly to their brains. As Mr. Lewis stresses throughout this unorthodox but enlightening book, people learn to be addicts, and, with effort, they can learn not to be addicts, too.”
Wall Street JournalNeuroscientist Lewis delves into the functioning of the addicted brain. He intends to demonstrate that addiction (substance abuse but also behavioral addictions such as eating disorders, gambling, etc.) is not a disease
This objective is met by the detailed life stories of five recovering addicts the author has interviewed. Their descent into the grips of addiction reads like passages of a junkies memoir: terrifying and page-turning
[T]his work helps make sense of how addiction operates and is recommended for readers wanting to learn more on the topic.” Library Journal
Neuroscientist Lewis (Memoirs of an Addicted Brain) presents a strong argument against the disease model of addiction, which is currently predominant in medicine and popular culture alike, and bolsters it with informative and engaging narratives of addicts lives... Even when presenting more technical information, Lewis shows a keen ability to put a human face on the most groundbreaking research into addiction. Likewise, he manages to make complex findings and theories both comprehensible and interesting
[T]his book, written with hopeful sincerity, will intrigue both those who accept its thesis and those who do not.” Publishers Weekly
Armed with scientific data and plenty of case studies
Lewis enters the ongoing addiction nomenclature debate with an intellectually authoritative yet controversial declaration that substance and behavioral dependencies are swiftly and deeply learned via the "neural circuitry of desire."
Lewis introduces biographical testimonies of Americans struggling with addiction that both humanize and reinforce his standpoint.
A thought-provoking, industry-minded, and polarizing perspective on the neurocircuitry of human desire and compulsion.” Kirkus Reviews
This is the real story of this is your brain on drugs, but one that provides a refreshing, convincing alternative to the widespread traditional disease-model view of addiction. Through compelling stories of real people who struggled with various addictions, Lewis lucidly makes the case for a new science-based understanding of what causes and sustains addiction. Most important, it offers far more positivity about ways out of addiction than those offered by traditional treatment, providing hope for those struggling as well as for their loved ones.” Anne M. Fletcher, M.S., author of NY Times best-selling Sober for Good, Inside Rehab, and the Thin for Life Books. Recipient of the Research Society on Alcoholism Journalism Award and APAs Outstanding Contributions to the Understanding of Addictions Awards
Highly readable and plausible illustration of current ideas about addiction from behavioural neuroscience and clinical perspectives by the use of vivid case histories." Trevor Robbins, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, Cambridge University
Marc Lewiss new book neatly links current thinking about addiction with neuroscience theory and artfully selected biographies. Ex-addicts, we learn, are not cured,” rather they have become more connected to others, wiser, and more in touch with their own humanity. This is a hopeful message that has, as Lewis demonstrates, the advantage of also being true.” Gene Heyman, author of Addiction: Disorder of Choice
Informed by unparalleled neuroscientific insight and written with his usual flare, Marc Lewis's The Biology of Desire effectively refutes the medical view of addiction as a primary brain disease. A bracing and informative corrective to the muddle that now characterizes public and professional discourse on this topic.” Gabor Maté, M.D., author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
Dr. Lewis a former addict who recovered to become a distinguished neuroscientist and author writes engagingly about the addictive experience, the recovery experience and the science behind them. Whether you are looking for a foundation in the neuroscience of addiction, guidelines for recovery or just hope that recovery is possible, it's all here. The scientific information is presented in the context of day-to-day behavior and the lives of individuals you will come to care about. You'll learn more about neuroscience (and human development and psychology) than you may have thought possible. Informed by this book, you'll see how neuroscience explains addiction as a part of life, rather than a mysterious entity only experts can understand.” Tom Horvath, Ph.D., President of ABPP, Practical Recover, and SMART Recovery and author of Sex, Drugs, Gambling and Chocolate: A Workbook for Overcoming Addictions
"A courageous and much needed voice in rethinking addictionLewis takes addiction out of a disease model and reframes it as a negative outcome of neuroplasticitysimply put, our brains' fundamental nature to change as a result of learning and experience. This model provides realistic hope, given that what has been learnt can be unlearnt by harnessing the principles of neuroplasticity. Through his intimate personal and professional knowledge of addiction Lewis reframes our understanding of its mechanisms and nature in a way that is empowering." Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, author of the International Best Seller, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
Synopsis
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 its supposed to doseek pleasure and reliefin a world thats 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.
About the Author
Dr. Marc Lewis is a developmental neuroscientist and professor of human development and applied psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He has more than fifty journal publications in neuroscience and developmental psychology; served as coeditor of Emotion, Development, and Self-Organization: Dynamic Systems Approaches to Emotional Development, and is the author of the critically acclaimed book Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs.