Theodore Dalrymple believes that almost everything people know about
opiate addiction is wrong. Most flawed of all is the notion that addicts are in touch with profound mysteries of which non-addicts are ignorant. Dalrymple shows that doctors, psychologists and social workers, all of them uncritically accepting addicts' descriptions of addiction, have employed literary myths (drugs are creative and intense) in constructing an equal and opposite myth of quasi-treatment.
Using evidence from literature and pharmacology and drawing on examples from his own clinical experience, Dalrymple shows that addiction is not a disease, but a response to personal and
existential problems. He argues that…
I totally agree with Theodore Dalrymple's central thesis. Let's stop describing abusers of mind altering drugs as addicts. This implies that they are helpless victims. No, these individuals are… I tend to agree with Dr. Dalrymple...From the jacket blurb: "Almost everything you know about heroin addiction is wrong. Not only is it wrong, but it is obviously wrong. Heroin is not highly…
