RE: Pick your Poison - Your Addictive Self
Hi, interesting that you define addiction as a pathology - you might be interested in some relatively recent sociology on this - Anthony Giddens (1991) argued that 'addiction' is actually a coping strategy which people adopt because of the uncertainties which arise with a globalised postmodern society.
His basic argument is that because nothing social is stable anymore people are forced back on themselves in an attempt to find something solid and certain - and people find many different things - it might be collecting things - shoes, experiences, likes, for example, or it might be fundamentalist- becoming THE most extreme person - a body builder or a terrorist are essentially the same here.
And I think yer right, the challenge is to learn to be comfortable with letting go of all of this and embracing uncertainty. HOW we do that and how society adapts to cope with it is one the central challenges of our times.
I just thought you might like a bit of socio-historical perspective on where we fit into all of this.
Finally, Giddens suggests that joining New Social Movements is a suitable antidote to the 'dislocated self' - because then we root ourselves in something but then still have a forward-purpose.
Just my tuppence worth.
Thank you for your thoughts ! It is the case that addiction is treated as a pathology, one that can never be cured. I see addiction as a sequence of behaviour due to motivation and so I am extremely interested in the perspective you share. My experience is that addictive self can be both productive and destructive, depending on the lesson one is meant to receive from their choices. I wonder if perhaps you can explain more about how the bodybuilder and the terrorist are similar ? For me, my pursuit of my dislocated self leads me to connect with the globalised postmodern society in a way that is intended to join and support in pursuit of higher truths.