Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 71, 2004
© Medical Council on Alcohol 2004; all rights reserved
BOOK REVIEW
Addiction — evolution of a specialist field
Addiction — evolution of a specialist field. Edited by Griffith Edwards. Blackwell Science, Oxford, 2002, 400pp. £27.50. ISBN 0-632-05976-1.This book is a selection of annotated interviews originally published in the journal Addiction between 1990 and 2001. They have been chosen to illustrate the way in which the field of addictions has evolved in recent decades. Each section is provided with a brief summarizing commentary by notable experts in that area.
What do we mean by the ‘field’ of addiction? It covers the full range of addictive substances: alcohol; licit and illicit drugs; tobacco, but no gambling or sex. Contributions include those from scientists, practitioners, activists and policy makers. Evidently the field draws on expertise in a wide range of disciplines including public health, education, pathology, psychiatry, psychology, politics and a range of neurosciences. In the UK and elsewhere there are an increasing number of departments of addiction studies in universities, although there are still only a handful of centres for research. The ‘field’ still has a long way to develop, yet at the same time it needs to avoid the risk of isolation from other disciplines, services and social policies. Most of the contributors to this book illustrate in their life histories the way in which their interest in addictions grew out of other life experiences, which they then brought to illuminate different aspects of addictive behaviours.
Readers with a particular interest in alcohol-related problems will be able to renew their acquaintance with old friends and learn new things about them. They will also learn the views of eminent workers in addiction — selected for inclusion by the Editor of Addiction and expertly questioned by an interviewer chosen to bring out features of their character, background and contribution. It is hard to pick out individual interviews, but a sample may encourage potential readers to dip into the book. Le Clair Bissell tells about her early work in setting up a residential rehabilitation unit for alcoholics in New York in 1974 — she makes a simple statement that must ring true for many practitioners: ‘I don't think there is anything more gratifying than having an individual patient get well’. There is a wonderful interview with Fred Glaser which brings to life his animated and endlessly questioning approach to treatment research and service organizations. Typically, he concludes on treatment: ‘Nothing works for everyone, but everyone can benefit from something’. The Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario is described as ‘the jewel in the crown’ and is well represented by Martha Sanchez-Craig and Reg Smart. Australia, which has produced so many outstanding addiction scientists, is the only country that also has a Prime Minister as interviewee. Robert Hawke's commitment to establishing centres for research, training and treatment is well known, as was his courageous promotion of harm reduction as opposed to the zero tolerance strategies beloved by so many politicians. David Hawks conducted this interview and is himself interviewed by Griffith Edwards. David, as a psychologist, is someone who moved from a focus on the individual towards a more global and political interest in prevention and the development of treatment systems. He sums up this journey: ‘It matters that the individual person gets better, these things hurt, but that individual person will be replaced by another and another and another until somehow or another we can reduce the flow from the tap, and I guess I have always wanted to get my hands on the tap...’.
From Europe, the interplay of research and policy is well illustrated by Klaus Makela and Gabriel Romanus. It is personally cheering to read an interview with my old friend Wilhelm Feuerlein from Munich, who did so much to re-establish the now flourishing field of alcohol research in Germany. There are many others: Raj Rathod and Thomas Bewley are amongst a list of UK drug researchers.
I could continue listing contributors and the insights they provide, but I hope this is enough to encourage you the reader to look into this book. Of course the regular reader of Addiction will have read these interviews already but there is merit in having them collected together in one volume.
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