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Book Cover
E-book
Author Kemp, Ryan, author

Title Transcending addiction : an existential pathway to recovery / Ryan Kemp
Published Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2018
©2018

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Description 1 online resource (x, 142 pages)
Contents Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface; Part I Setting the agenda; 1 An introduction to addiction; 2 What is existential phenomenology?; 3 Existing theories of addiction; Part II Dimensions of the addictive lifeworld; 4 Temporal dimension of addiction; 5 The lived body of drug addiction; 6 Being-with-others in addiction; 7 The worlding of addiction; 8 The symbolic aspects of addiction; Part III Towards a recovery from addiction; 9 Treating the addicted subject; References; Index
Summary Addiction is often thought about in terms of cause, be that brain chemistry, attachment patterns or cognitive schemas. But this does not allow an understanding of what addiction "is". It does not illuminate how addiction is lived. A phenomenology of addiction reveals that addiction is characterised by an intolerance of pain, a pursuit of pleasure, immediacy, technocratic solutions, alienation, ambiguity and is drenched in deception. These are its individual clinical manifestations, but this is also the way life, in this century, is lived. The addict is thus the ultimate 21st century subject, consuming without end, intolerant of emotion and unable to grasp their own limitations. Rather than embraced, these subjects act as a denied symptom, haunting late capitalism and exposing the vampire-like nature of our culture. As such, these subjects need to be treated not just as individuals who have "gone too far", but as victims of the political agenda shaping our lives. Thus the heart of the book is a description of addiction deepened by existential-phenomenological theory. This description is then used to understand the historical emergence of addiction, its socio-political manifestation and also the crucial issue of how to clinically treat the addict-subject
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Substance abuse -- Treatment.
Addicts -- Psychology
Substance-Related Disorders -- therapy
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Security.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Social Services & Welfare.
Addicts -- Psychology
Substance abuse -- Treatment
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780429440397
0429440391
9780429802898
0429802897
9780429802874
0429802870