The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors

Nobody has had an answer for why people with addictions continue to repeat them -- until now.

For more than twenty years, distinguished psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes has been successfully helping people master their addictions -- alcoholism, compulsive gambling, smoking, sexual addiction, and more with a radical approach. Dr. Dodes describes how all addictions have, at their heart, unrecognized emotional factors that explain:

• Why we feel the impulse
• Why we feel it when we do
• What alternatives (really) work in that critical moment

In this refreshing book filled with compelling case studies, Dr. Dodes debunks several such widely accepted myths as:

• Addictions are fundamentally a physical problem.
• People with addictions are different from other people.
• You have to hit bottom before you can get well.
• You are wasting your time if you ask "why" you have an addiction.

“In a field rife with misinformation, this book represents a bright beacon of light... I recommend it wholeheartedly.” — The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Lance Dodes, MD, is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in the Division on Addictions. He has been director of the substance abuse treatment unit of Harvard's McLean Hospital and director of the Boston Center for Problem Gambling. He has been elected a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.