A Multidisciplinary View on Addiction

2056 Words9 Pages
Addiction, A Multidisciplinary View on This Mental Disorder Rami K. Allam - 112754130 Addiction is one of the most controversial disorders of current times. Many try to explain Addiction in terms of a single dimension, such as the disease model, but we will find that a unilateral view will leave out many important features of Addiction. A theory of Addiction should encompass a framework in which all facets of the person’s life are involved. Those facets include the biological, social and psychological aspects of the individual. I will present what I think to be the most valid theory, Graham’s concept. His view of Addiction is that of a mental disorder, which is brought about by brute a-rational mechanical forces and the conscious phenomenology of the person. This disorder harms individuals’ ability to function in society as well as harmful consequences to the self and the people around them. As a nicotine addict, I will attempt to present a theory of Addiction, using my personal phenomenology as an exemplar, to entail a multidisciplinary view. This view is to adapt the three factors of biological, social and psychological into a framework that defines Addiction as a mental disorder. I will begin by presenting the social issue by referring to Herbert Fingarette, who states in his book ‘Heavy Drinking’, that Addiction is neither a mental nor a physical disorder. He presents the learning theory of Addiction which entails that the individual’s physical and cognitive capacities are functional. I will argue against this view by showing that just because the learning capacities are functional doesn’t mean other capacities are as well. Also that the capacities are not irreversibly dysfunctional, they are only truncated (by mechanical forces). I will proceed by referring to Wing, whom in his ‘Reasoning about madness’ book retains the realism of the mental disorder by
Open Document