Book
The urge : our history of addiction / Carl Erik Fisher.
"An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addiction-a phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless lives-by an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780735237001 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xxi, 377 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Publisher: Toronto : Allen Lane, 2022.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Fisher, Carl Erik, > Mental health. Addicts > History. Alcoholics > Biography. Alcoholics > Rehabilitation > Biography. Psychiatrists > United States > Biography. |
| Genre: | Biographies. Autobiographies. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 362.29092 Fishe | 31681010265841 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Penguin Putnam
An authoritative, illuminating, and deeply humane history of addictionâa phenomenon that remains baffling and deeply misunderstood despite having touched countless livesâby an addiction psychiatrist striving to understand his own family and himself
Even after a decades-long opioid overdose crisis, intense controversy still rages over the fundamental nature of addiction and the best way to treat it. With uncommon empathy and erudition, Carl Erik Fisher draws on his own experience as a clinician, researcher, and alcoholic in recovery as he traces the history of a phenomenon that, centuries on, we hardly appear closer to understandingâlet alone addressing effectively.
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As a psychiatrist-in-training fresh from medical school, Fisher was soon face-to-face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of the condition that had plagued his family for generations, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that the current quagmire is only the latest iteration of a centuries-old story: humans have struggled to define, treat, and control addictive behavior for most of recorded history, including well before the advent of modern science and medicine.
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A rich, sweeping history that probes not only medicine and science but also literature, religion, philosophy, and sociology, The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions of what it means to be human and care for one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he arguesâour successes and our failuresâcan we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.
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The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinicianâs urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced, and compassionate view of one of societyâs most intractable challenges.
