The Selfish Brain: Learning From Addiction

By Robert L. DuPont

Book Overview

In this country, drug addiction and alcoholism have reached crisis proportions. The grim statistics illuminate the size of this crisis. More than 30 million Americans alive today will become addicted. The use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs causes one out of every four deaths in the United States. Illegal drug use now costs the nation $67 billion a year.

The Selfish Brain: Learning From Addiction takes a comprehensive, no-holds-barred look at the easy path to drug addiction and the tough road to recovery. Written in an easy-to-understand style, this book can help people confront addiction in their own lives and in their families by exploring the biological roots of addiction and the way addicts are allowed to deny their addiction by compassionate, well-meaning people. Based on his experience as a specialist on addiction and as a policymaker, former drug czar Robert L. DuPont, M.D., advocates "tough-love" measures to strip away the denial that allows addicts to remain trapped in their destructive habit and place them on the road to recovery. He examines treatment options, especially 12-step programs, which he believes are the most effective path to recovery. Powerful and often controversial, The Selfish Brain provides an honest examination of an insidious, destructive disease.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0880486864
• ISBN13: 9780880486866
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: American Psychiatric Association Publishing
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great book on addiction

I love the way this book is written, it keeps the reader interested and hungry for more information. This book is written for a lay person to be able to understand the disease of addiction and how it affects the addict, the family and society as a whole. I am a drug and alcohol counselor, and this is probably the best book I have ever read on addiction. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the study of addiction as well as anyone who is personally struggling with addiction in thier family or friends.

Actual Facts

This Book provides me with the basic essentials to resurrect "THE DEAD ". Thanks for the recommendation .

The science of addiction

Dr. Dupont is the former head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (part of the National Institutes of Health). He presents the science of addiction and recovery in a way that anyone can understand. This book was recommended to me by a former private patient of Dr. Dupont's, who had nothing but good things to say about him. I thought the book was excellent, and it really explains what works and why.

Best Resource Available

I have found this to be an excellent resource for every aspect of addiction. Dr. Robert Dupont is emminently qualified to author this text. He does an excellent job of personalizing his writing with examples from his practice. He offers a message of hope for addicts and their families. It is a tome, but a very readable one, and he even includes (in the introduction) a way to "speed read" it in 2.5 hours. I read it twice in a weekend and am about to order my third copy! (I just seem to find people to give them to).