oluntary behavioral changes.
According to Peele (p. 17), "craving and relapse have more to do with subjective factors (feelings and beliefs) than with chemical properties or with a person's history of drinking or drug dependence." This contention is justified on the grounds that no "biological indicators can" be used to determine when a person is addicted (p. 17). Addiction, according to Peele (p. 17) cannot be detected "in the absence of its defining behaviors. In general, a person is addicted when he says that he is. No more reliable indicator exists." Peele (p. 20) contends, thus, that substance addiction is a product of both physical dependence and psychic dependence.
To contend that Peele is incorrect in stating that dimensions other than the biological are involved in substance addiction would be as indefensible as Peele's claim that psychic factors are equal to physical factors in explaining all instances of substance addiction. The indefensibility of Peele's contentions is reflected in his explanation of withdrawal symptoms. If, as Peele contends, withdrawal symptoms are partly a function of setting and social milieu, then withdrawal symptoms should vary between settings, i.e., such symptoms should be more severe when they occur in the normal addict's social environment th
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