Stanton Peele

Bode Miller won a bronze medal for the United States in downhill skiing... The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has announced that "Alcoholism Isn't What It Used to Be."  They meant their research shows that most alcoholics don't go to AA or to treatment, but that most recover anyway - while continuing to drink.  And Miller is the poster boy for this narrative. He veered into excessive, unhealthy drinking - perhaps he would have qualified for a diagnosis of alcoholism (or "dependence").

Nora Volkow and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) insist, based on peering at MRIs, that addiction is a chronic brain disease.  You know - you saw it on HBO, and your kids learn this in school. But, as I point out to Nora, she's looking in the wrong place. If you examine actual human lives, addiction is an interaction between people and their worlds that changes with time.

This blog isn't addressed to Dr. Drew (he's hopeless). It's addressed to Drew Barrymore, who has announced that she still drinks. She stands as America's perfect addict. Except she's not, and she instead stands as a beacon to the bullshit of the American recovery saga.

When people's knowledge of addiction comes entirely from attending AA meetings (or examining addict brain scans), they find proof positive that people are unable to quit an addiction under usual circumstances - in other words, they learn the atypical is the rule. This is understandable, but very unfortunate.

Addiction is like the tail wagging the dog, or person, with the tail being a habit that dominates the person's whole life. Addiction therapy concentrates on the tail - cutting it off in abstinence therapy, making it smaller in behavioral treatment. But the real task is for the person to build a life - body and soul - that can't be wagged by even a very powerful tail.

Dr. Stanton Peele in an appearance with Dr. G. Douglas Talbott, founder of American Society of Addiction Medicine. Watch liberal Colmes attempt to destroy Stanton's reputation!

An October 2007 appearance on Fox & Friends wherein Stanton debates the Church Lady about teaching kids to drink.

Dr. Stanton Peele's appearance on Lynn Martin's Ontario, Canada based talk show discussing Addiction-Proof Your Child.

Dr. Stanton Peele discusses the nature of addictive behavior, and the viability of the "disease model".

Dr. Peele discusses the Temperance based theology informing 12 Step ideology, and the "disease" view of addictive behaviors, as uniquely American fetishes.