Stanton Peele

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Love and Addiction
2 Views on alcoholism
3 Views on 12 Step Treatment
4 Publications
5 Criticism
6 References
7 External links

Stanton Peele, Ph. D., J.D., (born January 8, 1946) is a licensed psychologist^{[citation needed]}, attorney^{[citation needed]}, practicing psychotherapist^{[citation needed]} and the author of books and articles on the subject of alcoholism, addiction and treatment. He won the 1994 Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for achievement in the Field of Scholarship from the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, DC,^[1] and the 1989 Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Mark Keller Award for Alcohol Studies for his article "The limitations of control-of-supply models for explaining and preventing alcoholism and drug addiction," JSA, 48:61-77, 1987. This last award, however, is often attributed to Cold War hysteria, and is no longer recognized by most alcohol governing bodies.^[2]

[edit] Love and Addiction

Peele began his critique of standard notions of addiction in 1975 when he published Love and Addiction (coauthored with Archie Brodsky).^[3]According to Peele's experiential/environmental approach, addictions are negative patterns of behavior that result from an over-attachment people form to experiences generated from a range of involvements. Most people experience addiction to some degree at least for periods of time during their lives. He does not view addictions as medical problems but as "problems of life" that most people overcome. ^[4] The failure to do so is the exception rather than the rule, he argues.^[5]

[edit] Views on alcoholism

Peele's belief that alcoholism and addictions are not biologically based diseases is in opposition to research on the subject and unaccepted by many in the alcoholism treatment, education, and prevention fields.^[6]

Peele challenged the total abstinence method of dealing with addiction in a Psychology Today article which, compared the Life Process Program versus the disease model.^[7] In an online library he attempts to debunk Alan Leshner addiction as brain disease theory.^[8]

[edit] Views on 12 Step Treatment

In a co-authored book, Resisting 12 step Coercion, Peele attempts to address issues of court mandated attendance of twelve-step drug and alcohol treatment programs. In his book, he argues that these treatment programs are useless and sometimes harmful, he presents research on alternative treatment options and accuses some addiction providers of routine violation of standard medical ethics.^[9]

[edit] Publications

Peele is the author of nine books including, in addition to Love and Addiction, The Meaning of Addiction (1985/1998), Diseasing of America (1989), The Truth about Addiction and Recovery (with Archie Brodsky and Mary Arnold, 1991), Resisting 12-Step Coercion (with Charles Bufe and Archie Brodsky, 2001), 7 Tools to Beat Addiction (2004), and Addiction-Proof Your Child (2007), as well as 200 professional publications.

[edit] Criticism

In a review of The Meaning of Addiction, Addiction researcher Dr Griffith Edwards described his ambivalence to Peele's work:

"With these and other issues treated in cavalier fashion, with referencing highly incomplete and crucial work often ignored, one begins to feel that this is a book where polemic and scholarship have become inextricably and unhappily mixed. ... Peele is not only a psychologist of distinction, but someone who can make use of sociological and biological ideas. ... So there's the dilemma."

—Griffith Edwards, Review of The Meaning of Addiction.^[10]