PEELE'S CONCEPT OF ADDICTION

Peele (1985, p. 2) contends that substance addiction cannot be explained adequately through "exclusively biological concepts." This position holds that substance addiction, as is true of other addictive behaviors, "is subject to social and cognitive influences" (p. 2). Peele (p. 2) stated that addiction "represents a continuum of feeling and behavior more than it does a distinct disease state." Addiction within this context is the manifestation of "an habitual style of coping, albeit one that the individual is capable of modifying with changing psychological and life circumstances" (p. 2). According to Peele's (p. 2) concept of addiction, even the trauma of drug withdrawal "is exclusively determined by physiology," but is, rather, associated with "a person's expectations, values, and self-concept, as well as the person's sense of alternative opportunities for gratification." Withdrawal symptoms, according to Peele (p. 19) are "actually a complex self-labeling process that requires users to detect adjustments taking place in their bodies, to note the process as problematic, and to express their discomfort and translate it into a desire for more drugs." The degree of suffering in the withdrawal process, according to Peele (pp. 19-20), is a function of the combined effects of the amount of a drug typically used by an individual, "setting and social milieu, expectation and cultural attitudes, personality and self-image, and, especially, lifesty

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ntends that cultural perspectives contribute to the development of substance addiction. To support this contention, Peele (p. 12) points out that opium addiction was never a problem in India where it was used indigenously, but that addiction to the substance developed quickly in China subsequent to its introduction to that country by the British. Peele (p. 13) also cites as a justification for his position that the antisocial aggressive behavior associated with alcoholism in the United States and Eastern Europe is not found among Greeks and Italians. Peele (p. 13) contends that some Americans, as an example, become alcoholics because American culture excuses the behaviors of people while under the influence of alcohol. Thus, if Peele's model of addiction were accepted by the American public, one would expect American society as a whole to condemn antisocial behavior regardless of the presence or absence of substance abuse. Peele (p. 13) also contends that substance use is tied to social and peer groups. Peele implies that were it not for peer pressure many people would not abuse chemical substances. This part of Peele's model has been widely accepted by the American population, and this awareness has had not noticeable effe

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