ABSTRACT
Addiction and the poor outcomes faced by people with addictions are understood to be among the most urgent and puzzling aspects of contemporary life. This book attempts to shed light on addiction by proposing a simple but sweeping view of addiction, on which addiction is a disability. Taking this view seriously should shape our attitude not only toward addiction treatment but also toward fundamental questions in social justice. This book will argue that this view is both a plausible and a powerful one. The question of whether it is true will hang, ultimately, on the judgment of addicted people themselves: disability is an identity, and it fits addicted people only if some critical mass of addicted people decides, on reflection, to accept it.
