Addiction Reimagined: Challenging Views of an Enduring Social Problem

“Addiction Reimagined: Challenging Views of an Enduring Social Problem” outlines the current issues in the field of substance use and addiction by thoroughly analyzing its history and other concerns such as diagnosis, treatment, and prevention measures, or the effect of addiction on the family and its connection to the criminal justice system. In this work, Professor Steverson calls for a reimagining of our past and current understandings of addiction and its role as a social, rather than a medical, problem. “Addiction Reimagined” provides a macro-level (i.e. sociological) approach to the examination of the processes and treatment modalities of addiction.
This book will be valuable to those who are interested in addiction and the mental health system (people who have addiction problems or policy makers, for instance) as well as to practitioners in the field and people concerned about a failing system, and who would like to make it more functional. It will also be useful to university students undertaking courses such as The Sociology of Addiction or Sociology of Substance Abuse.

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 A Short History of Alcohol and Alcoholism

Chapter 3 A Short History of Other Drugs of Abuse

Chapter 4 The Emerging Issue of Behavioral Addiction

Chapter 5 Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

Chapter 6 Addiction and the Family

Chapter 7 Addiction, Deviance, and the Criminal Justice System

Chapter 8 The Sociological Perspective

Chapter 9 Strategies for Advocacy in the Addictions Field

Chapter 10 Concluding Thoughts

References

Index

Leonard A. Steverson is an adjunct professor of sociology at Flagler College and associate professor emeritus of sociology at South Georgia State College in Douglas, Georgia. Prior to entering academia, he was a licensed family therapist and addiction counselor. He holds a BS and an MS in Sociology as well as a PhD in Human Services. He is the author of “Policing in America: A Reference Handbook” (ABC-CLIO, 2008) and “Madness Reimagined: Envisioning a Better System of Mental Health in America” (Vernon Press, 2018), and co-author of “Giants of Sociology” (Pearson, 2006) and “Debating Social Problems” (Routledge, 2018). Professor Steverson has also worked as a director of a mental health and substance abuse program for children and adolescents, as a correctional counselor, and as a probation officer. These experiences, along with a recent investigation into the current mental health system as an addictions counselor, left him with some concerns about the system in which he was once employed. This was the catalyst for the precursor for this work—"Madness Reimagined.” “Addiction Reimagined,” an extension of that work, specifically focuses on addiction and is intended to engage people in making sure the field of addiction is effective and efficient.

Social psychology, mental health