ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the history of co-dependency. It claims that co-dependency is a disease— and, in fact, an addiction— in and of itself, rather than a condition caused by intimacy with an addict. The analysis will treat co-dependency as a discourse, a symbolic system, a set of beliefs, about the self in relation to society. The central argument of the book is that co-dependency is the product of and a response to a transformation, still underway, in US culture. It discusses the pivotal importance that the concept of process addiction had in making the co-dependency movement. The book examines co-dependency's embodiment in social relationships, its creation of new "mediating institutions". It concludes the implications of and lessons to be learned from co-dependency and its movement, arguing that, although an adequate level of understanding of this phenomenon is essential.
