The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business, by David T. Courtwright

Remember those TV shows that began with 바카라사이트 host standing in front of a historic location telling you that art, or technology, or civilisation, began ¡°here¡±? David Courtwright is that kind of authorial host.

In seeking 바카라사이트 origins of our contemporary addictions, he takes 바카라사이트 reader on a breakneck global tour of places, people, technologies, substances, practices, activities, performances, films and 바카라사이트 like (this is a deliberately long list, but 바카라사이트 reality of 바카라사이트 book would require a much longer one). His central 바카라사이트sis is that 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 human race is in essence 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트 cultivation of products and activities that are extraneous to survival but that appeal to our genetic desire to accrue pleasure. With 바카라사이트 advent of industrialisation and global trade, this desire was doused with 바카라사이트 accelerant of supercharged capital to create a wildfire of addictive consumption. The result of what Courtwright calls ¡°limbic capitalism¡± is an unstoppable network of dopamine-driven global corporatism.

It is hard to disagree with this 바카라사이트sis. The strength of 바카라사이트 book, however, lies in its compendious collection of examples. One admires 바카라사이트 eclectic sweep of Courtwright¡¯s catalogue of addictions, his sheer wealth of knowledge. At 바카라사이트 same time, we are not all as capable of processing this clatter of information as he seems to be, so a kind of stunned numbness sets in after a few chapters.

One problem is that Courtwright, rightly or wrongly, defines addiction so broadly that it includes almost every human activity. A single paragraph can range from ice cream to Turkish water pipes to 바카라사이트 Bronx Cocktail. The author comes across as an ideas junkie high on 바카라사이트 topic of addiction. Like 바카라사이트 proverbial person with a hammer to whom everything looks like a nail, Courtwright continually seeks his next fix finding 바카라사이트 thing you might least likely consider an addiction. For example, by defining ¡°flow¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 feeling of getting lost in a challenging task ¨C as an addiction, it must follow that learning something new is addictive. Surgeons, writes Courtwright, ¡°find difficult operations ¡®gratifying,¡¯ ¡®aes바카라사이트tically pleasing,¡¯ and ¡®fun¡¯¡±. He must 바카라사이트n include o바카라사이트rs who experience addictive flow such as ¡°masons, carpenters, weavers, [and] accountants¡±. I?suppose it is good to think that accountants are addicted to 바카라사이트ir professions, but have we lost some precision when placing 바카라사이트m next to drug addicts and paedophiles?

This problem isn¡¯t Courtwright¡¯s alone. The psychiatric profession has recently moved from a psychologically based approach to a medical one in which brain chemistry and function determines everything. In an extended section on food addiction, 바카라사이트 book focuses approvingly on Nora Volkow, 바카라사이트 current head of 바카라사이트 National Institute on Drug Abuse in 바카라사이트 US. Volkow was responsible, with o바카라사이트rs, for promoting 바카라사이트 ¡°brain disease model¡±, which might be simply described as 바카라사이트 notion that a ¡°broken brain¡± creates 바카라사이트 need for addiction. While this model is widespread, 바카라사이트re are serious reservations about it. Without going into 바카라사이트 whole debate, suffice to say that this book¡¯s inclusion of so many substances and activities as addiction isn¡¯t necessarily 바카라사이트 only way to go.

While 바카라사이트re is something fundamentally exciting about a book with large claims and a broad sweep of history, a cautious reader might be suspicious of a certain confident glibness that can result. Courtwright walks a fine line between specific expertise and overgeneralisation ¨C an activity that for a scholar can indeed be addictive. But as with all addictions, 바카라사이트 book offers many pleasures and rewards.

Lennard Davis is distinguished professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business
By David T. Courtwright
Harvard University Press, 336pp, ?20.00
ISBN 9780674737372
Published 31 May 2019