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Review
Thus we wholeheartedly would like to recommend the book for students as well as scholars. Read and learn!′
Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Vol 24, 2007
‘The book provides a comprehensive review of existing theories – over 30 in all – and this synthesis of theories constitutes an important contribution in and of itself...West is to be commended for his synthesis of addiction theories that span neurobiology, psychology and social science and for his insights into what remains unexplained.’
Addiction, Vol 101, Iss 7.
‘Robert West’s erudite, lucidly written Theory of Addiction takes the reader on an engaging tour of almost every significant conceptual system in the field … West adroitly finds gold amongst the lead, adds some previous gems of his own, and presents the field with a real treasure: an integrated, useful, thought–provoking and testable theory of addition.’
Keith Humphreys, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine
‘This book is a tour de force, constructing step by step a wide–ranging theory of addiction … After summarising and assessing more than 30 previous theories, West draws on elements from economics, sociology, pharmacology and biology, along with a core of material from psychology, to put together a broad and testable theory of how people move into and out of addiction, and how social forces can affect this … The book will serve as a point of reference for years to come.’
Robin Room, Professor and Director, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD), Stockholm University
‘This volume is a welcome attempt at a synthesis of the plethora of theories and models that abound in the field of addiction.’
Wayne Hall, Professorial Research Fellow and Director, Office of Public Policy and Ethics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Australia
Robin Room, Professor and Director, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD), Stockholm University
In the beginning this book was going to be a compendium of addiction theories. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
John
When reading the opening chapters, which cast a critical eye over existing theories of addiction, you can’t help but think: “I knew that wasn’t quite right”. When reading the chapters that describe West’s theory of addiction you have a feeling that: “it all seems to fit somehow”. The use of very real examples compliments and highlights the theoretical content of this book and encourages the reader to ‘test’ the theory against their reality: it works. This book has changed the way that I think about addictive behaviours and my approach to modifying or treating them.
I work with the author Robert West and so you may expect there to be some bias in my review; but there is no need to take my word for how good this book is. Dr Keith Humphreys of Stanford University says of the book, “an integrated, useful, thought-provoking and testable theory of addiction”. Professor Robin Room from Stockholm University calls it a “tour de force……The book will serve as a point of reference for years to come”. Students, practitioners and researchers will all find that this book helps greatly in their understanding of what it is to be ‘addicted’, without simplifying this complex phenomenon.
I like the design of the summary of previous theories. It is makes a good rational framework for their classification and I find it personally helpful.
Despite its protestations and promises about going beyond the earth-binding influence of empiricaly, even experimentally, determined "facts" it remains largely hidebound by them. Rigid insistence on scientific method is good at the philosopher A. N. Whitehead's stage of Precision but in the study of addictions we are far from that. We are still at the stage fo Romance. Precision will come later (perhaps much later) and it is premature and distorting of the whole picture to demand it now.
The author's predominant experience in the field of tobacco addiction may have had a distorting effect on his view because, although tobacco addiction may be the most enslaving of all addictions and it has horrendous long term health consequencs, it is peculiar in that it does have the emotional and social consequences that produce positive feedback sequences that enslave the addict still further such as happens in all the major other addictions. So there is little recognition of the circular effects of social and emotional consequences.
A peculiarity is that, despite much fundamental work of enduring importance today it rarely references work before 2000. This apparent lack of historical depth leads to some strange misunderstandings n the region of learning theory and to the historically impossible ascription of much of the origens of Skinnerian behavioural analysis to Marlatt and Gordon's Relpase Prevntion Model. Other deficiencies in the understanding of the origins of Social Learning Theory also distort the field.
Despite these minor quibbles. as an introductory text book it is probably better than most attempts at a general theory. It has a broad scope and is well referenced. Tough reading for the student who does not already know the field!
For all the defects I grumble about, it cannot and should not be ignored and I believe the overall analysis moves the field forward.
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