In recent years, the word 'addiction' has come to be used with quite a different meaning. It is now taken to refer to any activity which individuals engage in, deliberately and consciously, and are physically unable to stop themselves pursuing. In this newfangled sense of 'addiction', I maintain that 'addiction' is a myth. I deny that there is any such thing as 'addiction', in the sense of a deliberate and conscious course of action which the person literally cannot stop doing. According to my view of the world, the heroin addict can stop injecting himself with heroin, the alcohol addict can stop himself from swallowing whisky, and so forth.
People are responsible for their deliberate and conscious behavior. . . .
Two Ways of Looking at Addiction 2. How Beliefs Affect Reality 5. Smoking Right and Responsibility 7. Busting the Disease-Model Cult 9. Moderation Management and Murder 11.