A thought-provoking, industry-minded, and polarizing perspective on the neurocircuitry of human desire and compulsion.
An argument against classifying addiction as a chronic “brain disease.”
Armed with scientific data and plenty of case studies, developmental neuroscientist and former addict Lewis (Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs, 2012) enters the ongoing addiction nomenclature debate with an intellectually authoritative yet controversial declaration that substance and behavioral dependencies are swiftly and deeply learned via the “neural circuitry of desire.” The author blames the medical community for developing a disease-model juggernaut derived primarily from clinical data rather than biological and psychological research on brain changes and altered synapses. Lewis believes this conceptualization pegged the affliction as a disease instead of what he deems a “developmental cascade and a detrimental result of habitual behaviors.” As increasing numbers of medical communities have embraced the addiction model this way, he writes, treatment methodologies often become ineffective as well. Lewis further criticizes the Alcoholics Anonymous strategy and its emphasis on an addict’s ability to surrender to their “powerlessness” over a compulsion rather than promoting personal empowerment toward self-sustainability. Once past a somewhat overly clinical neuroscientific discussion on the brain’s plasticity, Lewis introduces biographical testimonies of Americans struggling with addiction that both humanize and reinforce his standpoint. Awash in the separate throes of heroin, methamphetamine, opiates, alcohol, and binge-eating compulsions, the cases are complemented with uplifting updates on their sobriety efforts, which the author prefers to call a “developmental journey” toward recovery. Lewis’ statement that addiction is “uncannily normal” likely stems from his experiences as a former narcotic addict who overcame a decadelong drug habit at age 30. While definite fodder for debate, the author remains firm in his belief that in order to fully process the addiction spectrum, we must “gaze directly at the point where experience and biology meet.”
A thought-provoking, industry-minded, and polarizing perspective on the neurocircuitry of human desire and compulsion.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61039-437-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
An exposition of the revolutionary changes in medicine coming in the next century as well as discussion of some of the ethical problems these will create. The distinguished Clark, professor emeritus of immunology at UCLA (Sex and the Origins of Death, 1996, etc.), attempts to explain to nonscientists the biology underlying molecular medicine. This is no small undertaking, and Clark is only partly successful. For the layperson, his work requires careful reading of dense text, mastery of a mysterious new vocabulary—``recombinant plasmids,'' ``antisense mRNA''—and study of complex diagrams. After these demanding biochemistry lessons, Clark turns to a fascinating discussion of what it all means in terms of health. He details the current state of gene therapy in treating cystic fibrosis and severe combined immune deficiency (the Bubble Boy disorder), in which copies of normal genes are being successfully introduced into the living cells of individuals with defective genes. In cancer, the ultimate goal of gene therapy is to alter or kill every tumor cell, and in AIDS to neutralize the effects of HIV. Clark, who is optimistic about reaching these goals, then devotes a chapter each to the profound effects on public health that DNA vaccination (injecting a gene from a pathogen, which would be more effective than today's vaccines) will bring in the next century and to the significance of the Human Genome Project, due to be completed shortly after the turn of the century. He clearly sees an educated public as the best defense against misuse of genetic information, for instance, altering a fetus's genetic makeup with the best of medical intentions but without knowing all the consequences of doing so. Although Clark insists that if one is to understand molecular medicine, one must first understand molecular biology, those who find his biology lectures too academic for comfort can still savor the well-wrought medical and ethical discussions.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-19-511730-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
In 1270, one year before the start of Marco Polo's fabled adventure, a Jewish merchant from the Adriatic port of Ancona set sail for the Orient; over 700 years later, his recently discovered account affords a rare and fascinating glimpse into the peoples, commerce, and thought of the 13th century. Selbourne, a former Oxford professor with an interest in Judaica, presents a fully annotated, very readable translation from the medieval Italian. It reveals Jacob d'Ancona as a savvy businessman, a scholar, a knowledgeable healer—and someone who never shies from disputation. Jacob sails to the eastern Mediterranean; journeys overland to Basra, where he attends the wedding of his son to a wealthy merchant's daughter; crosses the Arabian Sea, alighting on India's Malabar Coast; and then via Sumatra sails north to the Chinese port of Zaitun, the ``City of Light.'' Readers may be surprised to learn that Europeans of all stripes, as well as Saracens, or Muslims, had already been engaged in thriving trade with the Chinese for perhaps hundreds of years, Jewish merchants being among the most prominent. Zaitun itself was a Sodom of sorts: Its ``light'' is a consequence of the all-night commerce in human pleasures, which the pious Jacob abhors. But it is also a center of learning and a great agglomeration of peoples from the known medieval world. During his five-month sojourn, Jacob becomes involved in the intellectual and practical debates swirling around the city, which faced imminent invasion by Kublai Khan, to whom Polo would shortly become an advisor. Jacob's somewhat prolix disquisitions on piety and religion, the relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and the wisdom of confronting the Mongols earn him both admiration and enmity, and he must finally flee the city, though not without considerable financial success. An exciting, stimulating, and unique human document, and one that will no doubt become a much-trumpeted addition to the historical record. (50 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-316-17353-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
