ABSTRACT
The adult addict is physically continuous with some particular baby born years before, and they have an autobiographical memory of that particular individual life. The kind of identity they have lost or are in danger of losing is the kind of identity that comes from executing authorial power to align, keep aligned, and then continually recalibrate, one’s actual life in terms of one’s vision of the good. Addiction is an ironic disorder. The very community that provides the set of socially certified norms and aspirations for a good life, also often sets out norms for using alcohol and other dangerous drugs in ways that mark membership in that community. The addict has trouble putting their reasons, their best thinking, and their considered ideals in reliable control of their actions, and they have trouble abiding by the moral norms upon which their sense of their own integrity and self-worth turns.
