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Stanton Peele, Ph. D., J.D., (born January 8, 1946) is a licensed psychologist, attorney, practicing psychotherapist and the author of books and articles on the subject of alcoholism, addiction and addiction treatment.[1]
His awards have included:
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.[2]
1994. Alfred R. Lindesmith Lifetime Achievement Award for Scholarship from the Drug Policy Foundation , Washington, DC,[3]
1998. Creation of the Annual Stanton Peele Lecture, 1998, by the Addiction Studies Program, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
2006. Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006, International Network on Personal Meaning, Vancouver.[4]
Peele is the author of nine books including, Love and Addiction (1975), 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.
Peele began his critique of standard notions of addiction when he published Love and Addiction (coauthored with Archie Brodsky).[5] According to Peele's experiential/environmental approach, addictions are negative patterns of behavior that result from the over-attachment people form to experiences generated from a range of involvements. Most people experience addiction for at least some period(s) of time during their lives. He does not view addictions as medical problems but as "problems of life" that most people overcome. The failure to do so is the exception rather than the rule, he argues.[6]
The Department of Addiction Studies of Stirling (Scotland) newsletter began a new feature in 2010 in which department faculty members listed "the five books which most tellingly affected their work; to which they most often return; which they are most likely to recommend to colleagues." The first such list, by Rowdy Yates, included Love and Addiction, which Yates described as follows:
Peele, S. and Brodsky, A. (1975) Love and Addiction, New York: Taplinger Publishing. This book I read as soon as it was published. A friend had recommended it and she wasn’t wrong. Peele and Brodsky view addiction as a normal behaviour that has veered out of control and they compare it with dysfunctional human relationships. I think it was probably the first book I ever read which analysed addiction in a way that made sense to me and echoed what I knew from my work. Years later, after I came to Stirling, I undertook a study looking at recovered addicts who had been sexually abused as children. One of the researchers we used was a psychotherapist to trade and remarked to me that the relationship they described with their drug(s) of choice sounded exactly like their relationship with their perpetrator. I remembered Peele and Brodsky and pulled it off the shelf. It still reads absolutely true as an understanding of addictive behaviour all these years later.[7]
Peele maintains that, depending on the person, abstinence or moderation are valid approaches to treat excessive drinking. In a Psychology Today article which compared the Life Process Program with the disease model,[8] he also argues against the views of Alan Leshner and others that addiction is a disease.[9]
In a co-authored book, Resisting 12 Step Coercion (2001), Peele outlined his case against court mandated attendance of twelve-step drug and alcohol treatment programs. He argued that these treatment programs are useless and sometimes harmful, he presented research on alternative treatment options, and accused some addiction providers of routine violation of standard medical ethics.[10]
Peele has taken to task the views of John DeLuca, and his executive assistant, Loran Archer whom he noted (neither of whom had a research background), when they offered their own summary of the second Rand report, which Peele asserted was simply their reinterpreting of the Rand research findings . Deluca and Archer's views emphasized that abstinence ought to be the goal of all alcoholism treatment and that AA attendance offered the best prognosis for recovery, statements which the Rand report explicitly rejected. The second Rand report (Polich et al., 1981) responded systematically to criticisms of the original report; the investigators found substantial numbers of what they termed "nonproblem" drinkers.[11][12]
In a more recent assessment of Alcoholics Anonymous Peele asserts that "AA remains a religiously rooted folk movement that closely resembles the l9th-century American Protestant revivalism from which it sprang. As such, AA's success is not one of clinical outcomes but of public relations and cultural appeal for contemporary Americans...as evidence of its success it relies on personal testimonies ....As a cultural mechanism for reducing alcohol problems, AA has achieved a very overrated status[13]
Alan Marlatt expressed his views on Peeles book "Diseasing of America":
Peele makes it abundantly clear that the disease model of addiction, the ideology that currently reigns over the American addiction treatment industry, is basically an emperor without clothes. By placing addictive behaviors in the context of other problems of living, Peele emphasizes personal responsibility for one's habits. His views, well documented with timely references to new scientific data, contrasts sharply with the biological determinism of the disease model, a view that portrays addicts as helpless victims of forces beyond their control. The book empowers the reader to view addiction in a new optimistic light." [14]
Peele asserts as a result of his articles the Edgehill-Newport clinic closed because insurers refused to pay its bills.[15]
"In The Truth About Addiction and Recovery (1991) and 7 Tools to Beat Addiction (2004) Peele laid out the elements of alternative treatment. He developed these ideas as the Life Process Program, which is the basis for the non-12 Step residential treatment offered at the St. Gregory Retreat Center [16]
He has presented both a comparison between the Disease Model and the Life Process Model
1.Alcoholism is inbred
2.Everyone gets the same therapy
3.Focus on drinking
4.Person must accept he/she is alcoholic
5.Therapy and goals are dictated to person
6. Person with drinking problem must be alcoholic
7.Abstinence is only resolution for a drinking problem
8. Primary social supports are fellow alcoholics
9.Person must always think self as alcoholic.
Peele asserts the disease model is wrong and that every major tenet of the “disease” view of addiction is refuted both by scientific research and by everyday observation. People do not necessarily lose control of themselves whenever they are exposed to the object of their addiction and addiction usually does not last a lifetime. " once an addict always an addict " holds no merit. Progression is not inevitable—it is the exception. Contrary to all the advertising , treatment for addictions is often no more effective than letting addiction and recovery take their natural course . The number of self-curers is triple or more the number of successful treatment or A.A cases. But such self-curers are not very visible, because they are individuals without an organized group to publicize their success.[17]
Peele also addresses the many disadvantages of the disease approach to treatment: The Disease theory attacks people’s feelings of personal control and can thus become a self-fulfilling prophecy; it makes mountains out of molehills, since it fails to differentiate between the worst alcoholics and addicts and those with minor substance-use dependence; stigmatizes people—in their own minds—for life; interrupts normal maturation for the young, for whom this approach is completely inappropriate; holds up as models for drinking and drug use the people who have shown the least capacity to manage their lives; isolates alcoholism and addiction as problems from the rest of the alcoholic’s or addict’s life; limits people’s human contacts primarily to other recovering alcoholics or addicts, who only reinforce their preoccupation with drinking and drug use; dispenses a rigid program of therapy that is founded—in the words of the director of the government’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIA.A.A)—“on hunch, not evidence, and not on science,” while attacking more effective therapies.[18]
1.Person uses alcohol permanent trait to cope with life
2.Treatment is tailored to individual
3. Focus on problems, not labels
4.Person participates in therapy goals and plans
5.There are all kinds of drinking problems
6.Focus on coping
7.Improved control and successful relapse reduction sought as well as abstinence
8.Primary social supports: work, family, friends
9.Person need not think of self as alcoholic.[19]
Peele outline of the life process approach to treatment: Addiction is a way of coping with yourself and your world. The solution requires self-awareness, new coping skills, and changing your environment. Addiction is a continuum; your behavior is more or less addicted. Addiction can be outgrown. You should identify problems and solutions in ways that work for you. Those without an addiction problem are the best models. Addiction stems from other life problems you have. You should associate with a normal range of people. Getting better is not a matter of believing a dogma. You must develop your own power to get better.[20]
Peele further note that for many treatment is not necessary and in his review makes his key points.
Vaillant reported that over 60 percent of those who overcame their alcoholism didn't enter any kind of treatment, including AA. Later in the decade, research by Kaye Fillmore, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, found that from 60 to 80 percent of problem drinkers stopped abusing alcohol, usually without treatment Canadian addiction research investigators Linda Sobell, Ph.D., and Mark Sobell, Ph.D., recently reported that more than three-quarters of randomly selected adults in a national study who had recovered from alcohol problems for a year or more did so without formal help or treatment. According to Helzer and the ECA study, over half of all problem drinkers who stop abusing alcohol do so within five years of the start of their problem—usually by reducing their drinking, not quitting altogether. America's alcohol treatment industry attacks the idea of self-cure, saying people who believe they've recovered on their own are in denial.[21]
Lindesmith Center (now the Drug Policy Alliance): grant to write an adolescent drug guide (1996).
Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) and the Wine Institute: unrestricted grants (1999–2000).
Peele supported Moderation Management founder Audrey Kishline, who had been through AA and abstinence treatment earlier in life, who also subscribed to the belief that addiction is not a disease. Two months before she caused the deaths of two innocent individuals, Kishline had announced on Moderation Management internet discussion group that she was leaving MM to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. According to a report by the Seattle Times based on a statement Kishline gave at her plea hearing, "it wasn't long before she was consuming so much wine at night she would drink herself to sleep." Kishline had been attending AA regularly while drinking nightly.[22] [23][24]
Interestingly this was suggested to invalidate Kishline's position and by association, Peele's. Peele was one of 34 addiction professionals who published a statement about the Kishline incident [25] stating that "the approach represented by Alcoholics Anonymous and that represented by Moderation Management are both needed."
Peele's position is AA can no more be blamed for Kishline's drunken episode than can Moderation Management as it is difficult to judge either group based on the careers of individuals. He notes AA members have killed people while driving drunk and he had testified at a federal murder trial of an active AA member, who had been in treatment a number of times, adhered to the disease theory, and engaged in periodic planned binges while acting as an AA sponsor. He got drunk and crossed a medial strip, killing a woman driving in an oncoming car. He also notes Darryl Strawberry, who had devoted himself to AA, Narcotics Anonymous and abstinence (as well as becoming a born-again Christian), and who was scheduled to deliver a keynote address for the NCADD when he was arrested soliciting a prostitute, with cocaine in his possession, and subsequently failed a Yankees drug test.[26][27]
Peele has asserted:
Accidents are occurrences that can't be prevented. Drunk driving can be prevented by placing responsibility squarely where it belongs—with those who drink.[28]
In a review of The Meaning of Addiction, Addiction researcher Dr Griffith Edwards stated the following about 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.[29]
Developed Life Process Program, the basis for residential treatment at St. Gregory Retreat Center. May 2008 – present.
Blogger for Psychology Today and Huffington Post. March 2008 – present.
Forensic psychologist. Criminal responsibility, psychiatric and chemical dependence diagnoses and treatment abuses. 1987–present.
Advisor, American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV-TR section on substance abuse.
Adjunct Professor, New School University. 2004–present. Series of workshops on addiction topics, including “The Meaning of Addiction,” Evidence-Based Therapies or Addiction,” “Harm-Reduction Treatment,” etc.
Adjunct Clinical Professor, New York University School of Social Work. 2003-2005, including teaching courses, “History and Theory” and “Treatment Principles and Techniques” in the Post-Master’s Program in the Treatment of Alcohol and Drug
Visiting Professor, Bournemouth University, UK. 2003.
Addiction consultant. International and national lecturer. 1976–present.
Private psychologist, psychological consultant. 1976–present.
Private attorney, New Jersey-New York. 1998–present.
Pool attorney, Morris County Public Defender's Office. 1998-1999, 2001-2003.
Editorial Board, Addiction Research. 1994-2002. Associate Editor. 2002–present.
Consultant, Wine Institute, San Francisco, CA. Scientific advisor on encouraging healthy drinking habits. 1994-2001.
Consultant, International Center for Alcohol Policies, Washington, DC. Organizing conference on "Alcohol and Pleasure." 1996-1999.
Fellow, Drug Policy Alliance. 1994–present.
Member, S.M.A.R.T. Recovery International Advisory Council. 1998–present.
Board of Directors, Moderation Management. 1994-2000.
Consultant, Aetna Insurance Company. 1995-1996.
Marketing research consultant, Prudential American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Division. 1989-1995.
Managed care physician satisfaction surveys, HIP/Rutgers Health Plan. 1993-1995. Forensic psychologist. Criminal responsibility, psychiatric and chemical dependence treatment abuses. 1987–present.
Advisor, American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV section on substance abuse. 1992-1993.
Minimising the harms of alcohol therapy, Masterclass, Bournemouth University, UK, 2003.
Ham reduction therapy, Drug Policy Alliance Biennial Conference, Meadowlands, NJ 2003
Pacific Institute of Chemical Dependency, Honolulu, 2002
University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Duluth, 2002
Haymarket Center's 8th Annual Summer Institute, Chicago, 2002
Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, 2002
World Forum: Dugs and Dependencies, Montreal, 2002
Saskatchewan National Native Addiction Program Proviers, Regina, 2002
Trinity College: Addiction Research Centre, Dublin, 2001
Measuring Drinking Patterns, Alcohol Problems, and Their Connection, Skarpö, Sweden, 2000
26th Annual Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Oslo, 2000
L'Ordre des Psycholgues du Québec, Montreal, 2000
Ketile Bruun Society Thematic Merting: Natural History of Addictions, Switzerland, 1999
Eastern Regional Health Board of Nova Scotia, Cape Bretton, 1999
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York 1999
25th Annual Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Montreal, 1999
Winter School in the Sun, Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Brisbane, Australia, 1998
Inaugural Stanton Peele Lecture, Addiction Studies Program, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, 1998 Union County NCADD, 1996
ICAA Conference on the Prevention and Treatment of Dependencies, Amsterdam, 1996 (top right picture Stanton, presenting keynote address before Queen Beatrix, 1996 ICAA Conference, Amsterdam.)
Addictions Forum, Durham, UK, 1996 (right bottom picture, Stanton, delivering keynote address to the Addiction Forum, Durham Castle, 1996.)
British Columbia Ministry of Health, Conference on Community-Based Tobacco Reduction Strategies, Vancouver, 1995
International Conference on Effects of Different Drinking Patterns, ARF, Toronto, 1995 5th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, 1994
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, 1993
34th Institute on Addiction Studies, McMaster University, 1993
British Columbia Alcohol and Drug Program, Vancouver, 1993
3rd International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm, Melbourne, 1992
XIV World Conference on Therapeutic Communities, Montreal, 1991
Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, 40th Anniversary Conference, 1989
Relation de Dépendence et Rupture d'un Couple, Montreal, 1989
26th World Conference on Psychology, Sydney, 1988
NIAAA National Conference on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1988
Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Summer School Alumni Institute, 1982
National Conference of the Canadian Addiction Research Foundation, Calgary, 1978 Professional Activities:
Program Coordinator, Permission for Pleasure Conference, New York, 1998, under auspices of International Center for Alcohol Policies. 1996-1998.
Research consultant, EMRON Health Care Communications, Morris Plains, NJ 07950. Pharmaceutical market research and strategy. 1989-1991.
Senior health care consultant, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., P.O. 2393, Princeton, NJ 08543. Cost-effectiveness research, marketing surveys, etc. 1989-1992.
Research Director, Louis Harris and Associates. Project director, Health Care Outlook, syndicated survey of health care trends, 1987-1988. ]
Visiting Lecturer, Rutgers University—taught Drugs and Human Behavior, 1988.
Member, Planning Group, Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, to shift focus of program to overall prevention of adolescent substance abuse, 1989.
Assistant professor, Harvard Business School- - taught courses in interpersonal dynamics and small group behavior, organizational development, research design and data analysis, September 1971- June 1975. Delphi Expert Prevention Panel, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1989.
Affiliate Scientist, Alcohol Research Group, Berkeley, CA; Medical Research Institute, San Francisco, 1987-1989.
Consultant, editorial and data analysis, Graduate Record Examinations, 1987-1989.
Consultant and evaluation specialist, Huntington Drug Abuse Services Project, Youth Bureau Division, Village Green Center, Town of Huntington, NY 11743. 1990-1992.
Advisor, Congress of the United States Office of Technology Assessment Study, Adolescent Health. 1990. Contributing editor, Reason, 1989-1993.
Associate Editor, Cultural Change Section—American Journal of Health Promotion. 1988-1989. Contributing Editor—Journal of Drug Issues. 1988-1990.
Editorial Board, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 1986-1988.
Instructor, University of Michigan- - introductory social psychology, January 1969- April 1969, introductory (honors) psychology, January 1971- June 1971.
Lecturer, University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz)- - alcoholism counseling certificate programs, July 1975- August 1976.
Consultant, National Institute on Drug Abuse- - Glossary of Drug Terminology, August 1977- June 1979. Visiting associate professor, Pratt Institute (Department Urban and Regional Planning)- - interpersonal behavior, group process, organizational design, September 1977- July 1981.
Consultant on drugs and health, John Anderson presidential campaign, July 1980- October 1980. Visiting lecturer, Columbia University Teachers College (Department of Health Education)- - addictions and dependencies, core practicum course, September 1979- May 1980.
Columnist, U.S. Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, March 1981- December 1982.
Organizational consultant- - corporations, health organizations, small businesses, January 1974 – present.
Editorial consultant- - journals (American Psychologist, Journal Studies on Alcohol) and publishers (Prentice Hall, Lexington), June 1976 – present.
Clinical consultant- - King James Addiction Center, Sommerville, NJ, September 1984- 1986.
1995 International Conference on Social and Health Effects of Different Drinking Patterns, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto; 1995 International Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto; 1994 World Conference of Therapeutic Communities, Montreal; 1994 Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.
Participant in the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Delphi (Expert) Survey on Alcohol Treatment Practices, 2002.[30]
Professional Activities: Program Coordinator, Permission for Pleasure Conference, New York, 1998, under auspices of International Center for Alcohol Policies. 1996-1998.
Research consultant, EMRON Health Care Communications, Morris Plains, NJ 07950. Pharmaceutical market research and strategy. 1989-1991.
Senior health care consultant, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., P.O. 2393, Princeton, NJ 08543. Cost-effectiveness research, marketing surveys, etc. 1989-1992.
Research Director, Louis Harris and Associates. Project director, Health Care Outlook, syndicated survey of health care trends, 1987-1988.
Visiting Lecturer, Rutgers University—taught Drugs and Human Behavior, 1988. Member, Planning Group, Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, to shift focus of program to overall prevention of adolescent substance abuse, 1989.
Assistant professor, Harvard Business School- - taught courses in interpersonal dynamics and small group behavior, organizational development, research design and data analysis, September 1971- June 1975. Delphi Expert Prevention Panel, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1989.
Affiliate Scientist, Alcohol Research Group, Berkeley, CA; Medical Research Institute, San Francisco, 1987-1989.
Consultant, editorial and data analysis, Graduate Record Examinations, 1987-1989. Consultant and evaluation specialist, Huntington Drug Abuse Services Project, Youth Bureau Division, Village Green Center, Town of Huntington, NY 11743. 1990-1992.
Advisor, Congress of the United States Office of Technology Assessment Study, Adolescent Health. 1990. Contributing editor, Reason, 1989-1993.
Associate Editor, Cultural Change Section—American Journal of Health Promotion. 1988-1989. Contributing Editor—Journal of Drug Issues. 1988-1990.
Editorial Board, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 1986-1988.
Instructor, University of Michigan- - introductory social psychology, January 1969- April 1969, introductory (honors) psychology, January 1971- June 1971.
Lecturer, University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz)- - alcoholism counseling certificate programs, July 1975- August 1976.
Consultant, National Institute on Drug Abuse- - Glossary of Drug Terminology, August 1977- June 1979. Visiting associate professor, Pratt Institute (Department Urban and Regional Planning)- - interpersonal behavior, group process, organizational design, September 1977- July 1981.
Consultant on drugs and health, John Anderson presidential campaign, July 1980- October 1980. Visiting lecturer, Columbia University Teachers College (Department of Health Education)- - addictions and dependencies, core practicum course, September 1979- May 1980.
Columnist, U.S. Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, March 1981- December 1982.
Organizational consultant- - corporations, health organizations, small businesses, January 1974 – present. Editorial consultant- - journals (American Psychologist, Journal Studies on Alcohol) and publishers (Prentice Hall, Lexington), June 1976 – present.
Clinical consultant- - King James Addiction Center, Sommerville, NJ, September 1984- 1986. 1995 International Conference on Social and Health Effects of Different Drinking Patterns, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto; 1995 International Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto; 1994 World Conference of Therapeutic Communities, Montreal; 1994 Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.
Participant in the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies Delphi (Expert) Survey on Alcohol Treatment Practices, 2002. [31]