Can America Recover?: Reimagining the Drug Problem

A solution to the problem of addiction remains so elusive because we’ve been asking the wrong questions.
In this book, we trace our mistreatment of society’s outcasts, namely those with mental health problems, back to the birth of the asylum in 16th century Europe, showing how our modern-day approaches can be just as violent, if more subtle and even benevolent seeming.

We closely examine the roots of the "cult of the individual” that has become so widespread and fuels the isolation and despair that is at the heart of addiction. More than the social determinants of health that lie behind soaring death rates, we find that it's our worldview itself that causes so much of the unnecessary suffering in the world today.

In this wide-ranging investigation, we blow wide open the conversation around addiction and mental health in America, bringing us face-to-face with our collective shadow, everything we’ve denied about ourselves up until now. Only by acknowledging and admitting who we really are will we ever be free from the grip of our unconscious impulses.

A great many mystics throughout history have pointed to ways through our troubles, and to the next stage in our evolution. By connecting these ideas to our treatment of addicts, we bring spirituality to life and demonstrate that our collective recovery is necessary for our very survival as a species.

Just like the hundreds and thousands of people we’ve met who have recovered from devastating addictions over the years, we are confident that so too can America recover.