The Making of Addiction

[Dave Monroe]

Foxcroft, Louise.  The Making of Addiction:
   The 'Use and Abuse' of Opium in Nineteenth-
   Century Britain.  Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.

What does drug addiction mean to us? What did it mean
to others in the past? And how are these meanings
connected? In modern society the idea of drug
addiction is a given and commonly understood concept,
yet this was not always the case in the past. This
book uncovers the original influences that shaped the
creation and the various interpretations of addiction
as a disease, and of addiction to opiates in
particular. It delves into the treatments, regimes,
and prejudices that surrounded the condition, a newly
emerging pathological entity and a form of 'moral
insanity' during the nineteenth century.

The source material for this book is rich and
surprising. Letters and diaries provide the most
moving material, detailing personal struggles with
addiction and the trials of those who cared and
despaired. Confessions of shame, deceit, misery and
terror sit alongside those of deep sensual pleasure,
visionary manifestations and blissful freedom from
care. The reader can follow the lifelong opium careers
of literary figures, artists and politicians, glimpse
a raw underworld of hidden drug use, or see the
bleakness of urban and rural poverty alleviated by
daily doses of opium.

Delving into diaries, letters and confessions this
book exposes the medical case histories and the
physician's mad, lazy, commercial, contemptuous,
desperate, altruistic and frustrated attempts to deal
with drug addiction. It demonstrates that many of the
stigmatising prejudices arose from false 'facts' and
semi-mythical beliefs and thus has significant
implications, not only for the history of addiction,
but also for how we view the condition today.

https://www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?isbn=0%207546%205633%200


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Want to start your own business?
Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-index