The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors Paperback – December 24, 2002

This was a crucially important book for me to read. I am a psychiatrist and my practice includes both medication management and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Though trained in psychoanalytically-informed psychodynamic psychotherapy, I was also taught that addictions were fundamentally different such that the only effective treatment was the group self-help program -- exactly the opposite of what Dr. Dodes teaches. I recall a patient coming to me to uncover the deeper issues in his alcohol use -- essentially asking to do what Dr. Dodes advises -- and I turned him away indicating that I could be of no help to him. If you, my former potential patient, happen to be reading this, please accept my apology and know that I'll never make that mistake again.I find Dr. Dodes' approach to be sensible and refreshing, and I expect it to change the way I approach my current patients who suffer from addictions. My only criticism is the quality of some of the early clinical vignettes. I found the book to be initially difficult for me to read because I found the first few case presentations to be a little shallow and in that way a little less believable. The clinical vignettes seemed to improve significantly as the book progressed, perhaps because they no longer needed to exclusively serve the specific pedagogical purpose of elucidating the author's perspective on the underlying mechanism fueling addictive behavior. If you find yourself struggling to get through the early material, press on because, at least in my experience, the book gets much better.Very important read. Highly recommended.

This book really helped my gain understanding/perspective on addiction. Highly recommend it!

Book Review: The Heart Of Addiction by Lance M. Dodes M.D. Dodes' book is very compatible with the Self Management And Recovery Training (SMART) program and the psychological writings of Dr. Ellis and REBT. Dodes emphasizes the role our beliefs play in addictions. His emphasis is on discovering the driving force behind addictive behaviors. Other treatment modalities deal with the addictive power of the substance or behavior itself, i.e., how the drug or behavior effects an individual and why this occurs in physical terms or how the brain responds. Dodes, like SMART, says that in most cases, this is putting the cart before the horse. While it may be interesting to see how certain parts of the brain respond to a substance or behavior, it is a mistake to ascribe those reactions as somehow the cause of the behavior. The activating cause or event is not nearly as important as the beliefs associated with that event. The problem is discovering what those beliefs are and learning how to manage the feelings of helplessness that are the real culprits behind real addictive behaviors, whether they involve a substance or not. The difference between SMART and Dodes might be in the latter's emphasis on the need for an outside agency or person to discover and deal effectively with the penultimate cause(s) of an individual's problems. Dodes seems to think that since the individual is not aware of these real causes, since they oft times operate at an unconscious level, that therapy is necessary for the individual to discover them and find other, better, ways to address the feelings involved. Dodes, to be fair, does in one of the later chapters of the book, say that it is quite possible that just learning how this process works by reading his book might be enough to get an individual headed towards his or her own solution and cure for their addictions. I agree with the author and think the book is well worth reading, if for no other reason that it gives a large number of real life case examples how this works with various forms of both substance and behavioral addictions. I would give it a 4-Star rating rather than a 5-Star only because the author's style and presentation is somewhat disjointed. Of course, human psychology and life is a pretty disjointed business too.

I found this book refreshing and very insightful regarding the issue of addiction. Anyone could use the insight contained here, whether or not you are an addict. I would encourage friends and family members of addicts to read this to get a better understanding of the real heart issues behind addiction.It's time for the mental health community to recognize that treatment must get to the root of the problem - the heart, or drive, behind the negative behavior. Meds and meetings won't solve the issue; they just control the 'symptoms' of a broken heart.If you are suffering from an addiction, read the book and start journaling as though you are talking to a therapist like the author (if you currently don't have a therapist like him). Ask for truth to be revealed as you do this. It may be that you can find the point of helplessness that drives you to your addiction. It's worth a try. The main message of the book is very powerful. A must read for students of addiction.

I love the cases that where described throughout the book, as well as the reasoning behind each and every. It’s a must read for anyone who intends to help others in their struggles.

I found this book very helpful, both on an individual level and for helping others who suffer from addiction. I believe that the thesis which is central to the book is that addictions are displacements for emotions that we cannot face. This point is illustrated with a large number of stories about individuals who have suffered with addictions and with explorations of the underlying emotional issues that precipitated each struggle.Lance makes the case that addictions are in fact a subset of compulsions and should be treated in the same, more compassionate way in which we tend to view compulsive behaviour. This book offers hope to those who have suffered from addiction because it provides a framework for identifying and treating the root causes of addiction. Addiction can be turned against itself and used as a compass and a prompt to stop and identify the underlying motivation. For those without addictions, this same framework provides a level of self-reflection that can only help to better understand our needs, motivations and can help to illuminate the best path forwards in life.

Incredibly helpful and new, to me, ideas about why we have addiction and compulsions to do something that is harmful to us - because we are trying to deal with our rage and helplessness and because we can't do what we really want to do.This book has opened my eyes to why I compulsively overeat and I have to agree with a lot of what the doctor says.The book does not have a treatment plan and I believe that is a separate book which I intend to read.

Excellent book. It will help you be more understanding towards addicted people. I would love to read a follow up book full of cases studies.

So grateful that this book has been brought out by Dr. Dodes. I thank him truthfully for giving a completely different perspective on this topic. I hope this book could be of help to millions of people who are interested or who are in desperate help for getting over the addiction.