ABSTRACT
I have described recovery as the progressive restoration of contact functioning and the widening of the interpersonal field through fuller sensation, developed awareness, and nonhabitual actions. Relapse, from this perspective, is the progressive and often gradual diminishing of contact. The medical model describes relapse as the appearance of disease symptoms after a period of remission. This is an inadequate focus for the purpose of therapy with addicts. It is a projection of an internal process onto some abstract thing that causes the addict to behave in certain ways.
