Main description:

The problem of addiction is one of the major challenges and controversies confronting medicine and society. It also poses important and complex philosophical and scientific problems. What is addiction? Why does it occur? And how should we respond to it, as individuals and as a society?

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting subject. It spans several disciplines and is the first collection of its kind. Organised into three clear parts, forty-five chapters by a team of international contributors examine key areas, including:

the meaning of addiction to individuals
conceptions of addiction
varieties and taxonomies of addiction
methods and models of addiction
evolution and addiction
history, sociology and anthropology
population distribution and epidemiology
developmental processes
vulnerabilities and resilience
psychological and neural mechanisms
prevention, treatment and spontaneous recovery
public health and the ethics of care
social justice, law and policy.

Essential reading for students and researchers in addiction research and in philosophy, particularly philosophy of mind and psychology and ethics, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction will also be of great interest to those in related fields, such as medicine, mental health, social work, and social policy.

Contents:

Part 1: What is Addiction? Section 1: Conceptions of Addiction 1. The Puzzle of Addiction 2. Deriving Addiction: An Analysis Based on Three Elementary Features of Making Choices 3. The Picoeconomics of Addiction 4. Addiction as a Disorder of Self-control 5. Addiction: The Belief Oscillation Hypothesis 6. Addiction and Moral Psychology 7. Identity and Addiction 8. The Harmful Dysfunction Analysis of Addiction: Normal Brains and Abnormal States of Mind 9. The Evolutionary Significance of Drug Toxicity over Reward Section 2: Varieties, Taxonomies, and Models of Addiction 10. Defining Addiction: A Pragmatic Perspective 11. Diagnosis of Addictions 12. Reconsidering Addiction as a Syndrome: One Disorder with Multiple Expressions 13. Developing General Models and Theories of Addiction 14. Gambling Disorder 15. Food Addiction 16. "A Walk On the Wild Side" of Addiction: The History and Significance of Animal Models Part 2: Explaining Addiction: Culture, Pathways, Mechanisms Section 1: Anthropological, Historical, and Socio-Psychological Perspectives 17. Power and Addiction 18. Sociology of Addiction 19. The Fuzzy Boundaries of Illegal Drug Markets and Why They Matter 20. Multiple Commitments: Heterogeneous Histories of Neuroscientific Addiction Research Section 2: Developmental Processes, Vulnerabilities and Resilience 21. The Epidemiological Approach: An Overview of Methods and Models 22. A Genetic Framework For Addiction 23. Choice Impulsivity: A Drug-modifiable Personality Trait 24. Stress and Addiction Section 3: Psychological and Neural Mechanisms 25. Mechanistic Models for Understanding Addiction as a Behavioral Disorder 26. Controlled and Automatic Learning Processes in Addiction 27. Decision-making Dysfunctions in Addiction 28. The Current Status of the Incentive Sensitization Theory of Addiction 29. Resting-state and Structural Brain Connectivity in Individuals with Stimulant Addiction: A Systematic Review 30. Imaging Dopamine Signaling in Addiction 31. The Neurobiology of the Placebo Effects of Addictive Drugs 32. Brain Mechanisms and the Disease Model of Addiction: Is it the Whole Story of the Addicted Self? A Philosophical-skeptical Perspective Part 3: Consequences, Responses, and the Meaning of Addiction Section 1: Listening and Relating to Addicts 33. The Outcasts Project: Humanizing Long-term Heroin Users Through Documentary Photography and Photo-elicitation 34. Our Stories, Our Knowledge: The Importance of Addicts Epistemic Authority in Treatment 35. Reactive Attitudes, Relationships, and Addiction Section 2: Prevention, Treatment, and Spontaneous Recovery 36. Contingency Management Approaches 37. 12-step Fellowship and Recovery from Addiction 38. Opioid Substitution Treatment and Harm Minimization Approaches 39. Self-change: Genesis and Functions of a Concept Section 3: Ethics, Law and Policy 40. Addiction: A Structural Problem of Modern Global Society 41. Don't Be Fooled by the Euphemistic Language Attesting to a Gentler War on Drugs 42. Drug legalization and Public Health: General Issues, and the Case of Cannabis 43. Addiction and Drug (De)Criminalization 44. Criminal Law and Addiction 5. Addiction and Mandatory Treatment