ABSTRACT
The Myth of Addiction argued that, notwithstanding the fact that some people encounter terrible problems as a consequence of their unwise use of drugs, any supposed shift in the principles underlying their behaviour is a myth. The keystone to the addiction debate is the idea that “non-addicted” behaviour is “free” in some way that “addicted” behaviour is not. This alleged but impossible distinction is signalled in the discourse of addiction primarily through the use of terms such as “compulsion” and “loss of control”, which by implication contrast with the non-compelled and controlled behaviour of those who are “not addicted”. The notion of addiction as the manifestation of an independent or “extra-human” mechanism that submerges and over-rides normal human processes, and controls as if from a different locus the behaviour of the person showing the “condition”, is just such an example.
