The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction Is Not a Disease

Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the "disease model" of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery.

The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing.

Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to do-seek pleasure and relief-in a world that's not cooperating. As a result, most treatment based on the disease model fails. Lewis shows how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery. This is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.

• Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
• Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines his Former Life on Drugs
• In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
• The Addicted Brain: Why We Abuse Drugs, Alcohol, and Nicotine
• The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a happy, healthy, wealthy alcohol-free life
• The Joey Song: A Mother's Story of Her Son's Addiction
• Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol
• Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection
• Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction
• Basic Psychopharmacology for Counselors and Psychotherapists (2nd Edition) (Merrill Counseling (Paperback))