Addiction Reimagined: Challenging Views of an Enduring Social Problem
by Leonard A. Steverson (Flagler College)
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Building on a successful career as a practitioner and a disciplined scholar, Professor Steverson offers an insightful, comprehensive, and compelling exploration of one of our most pervasive and persistent challenges -- addiction in all of its manifestations.
This book successfully takes us well beyond a description of the enormous personal and societal costs of addiction by introducing helpful and hopeful possibilities for those of us who are earnestly seeking solutions.
James A. Cottingham
Professor Emeritus of Education & Psychology
South Georgia State College
“Addiction Reimagined: Challenging Views of an Enduring Social Problem” outlines the current issues in the field of substance use and addiction by thoroughly analyzing its history and other concerns such as diagnosis, treatment, and prevention measures, or the effect of addiction on the family and its connection to the criminal justice system. In this work, Professor Steverson calls for a reimagining of our past and current understandings of addiction and its role as a social, rather than a medical, problem. “Addiction Reimagined” provides a macro-level (i.e. sociological) approach to the examination of the processes and treatment modalities of addiction.
This book will be valuable to those who are interested in addiction and the mental health system (people who have addiction problems or policy makers, for instance) as well as to practitioners in the field and people concerned about a failing system, and who would like to make it more functional. It will also be useful to university students undertaking courses such as The Sociology of Addiction or Sociology of Substance Abuse.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 A Short History of Alcohol and Alcoholism
Chapter 3 A Short History of Other Drugs of Abuse
Chapter 4 The Emerging Issue of Behavioral Addiction
Chapter 5 Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
Chapter 6 Addiction and the Family
Chapter 7 Addiction, Deviance, and the Criminal Justice System
Chapter 8 The Sociological Perspective
Chapter 9 Strategies for Advocacy in the Addictions Field
Chapter 10 Concluding Thoughts
References
Index
Leonard A. Steverson is an adjunct professor of sociology at Flagler College and associate professor emeritus of sociology at South Georgia State College in Douglas, Georgia. Prior to entering academia, he was a licensed family therapist and addiction counselor. He holds a BS and an MS in Sociology as well as a PhD in Human Services. He is the author of “Policing in America: A Reference Handbook” (ABC-CLIO, 2008) and “Madness Reimagined: Envisioning a Better System of Mental Health in America” (Vernon Press, 2018), and co-author of “Giants of Sociology” (Pearson, 2006) and “Debating Social Problems” (Routledge, 2018). Professor Steverson has also worked as a director of a mental health and substance abuse program for children and adolescents, as a correctional counselor, and as a probation officer. These experiences, along with a recent investigation into the current mental health system as an addictions counselor, left him with some concerns about the system in which he was once employed. This was the catalyst for the precursor for this work—"Madness Reimagined.” “Addiction Reimagined,” an extension of that work, specifically focuses on addiction and is intended to engage people in making sure the field of addiction is effective and efficient.
Social psychology, mental health
