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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives on Mental Health pp 1–13Cite as

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Critical Perspectives of Addiction

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Synonyms

Addiction; Dependence; Habit; Heavy use over time

Definition

This chapter introduces critical perspectives of the way addiction has been conceived in mainstream mental health field during twentieth century, referring primarily to a disease or disorder of the brain. Among the counterpoints that are offered, we can differentiate between two main groups. The first one focuses on the very essence of addiction itself, its ontology. These theories question the individualized discourse in which addiction is embedded and offer other paradigms that can be used as lenses to analyze this phenomenon. They typically come from sociology and other social sciences, namely addiction as a choice, assemblage theory, and relational approaches towards addiction. The second big group of counternarratives come primarily from neuroscience and psychology. They mainly stay in the individual perspective but challenge the way of how addiction originates, its ontogenesis. The dislocation theory,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Spolek Narativ, Brno, Czech Republic

    Pavel Nepustil

  2. Collaborative Dialogical Practices, Now I See A Person Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Susan Swim

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  1. Pavel Nepustil
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  2. Susan Swim
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Correspondence to Pavel Nepustil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Counseling & Educational Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jessica Nina Lester

  2. The Greenwood Institute, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Dr. Michelle O'Reilly

Section Editor information

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Tom Strong

  2. Educational Studies in Counselling Psychology, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Tanya Mudry

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Nepustil, P., Swim, S. (2022). Critical Perspectives of Addiction. In: Lester, J.N., O'Reilly, M. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives on Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_52-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12852-4_52-1

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