Reimagining Psychology

"First the man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink; then the drink takes the man."There's more truth to this old saying than we know. An addiction like alcoholism often starts slow, but seems to take on a life of its own. Soon what seemed a harmless habit has slipped into the driver's seat, running our lives, hurting us and those we love, hanging on whether we like it or not. Why are addictions so persistent despite the trouble they cause? Are they simply our bad choices? Are they truly evidence of poor character or weak will? Maybe not. Maybe they are a kind of disease our psychology does not yet recognize. Author Tom Whitehead, a practicing psychotherapist, argues that addictions are "rogue habits," patterns of thought and action that have broken away from their controls, and are now evolving in their own interest - relating to us as parasite to host. This book explores the possibility that snippets of our own behavior can hijack our lives, compelling us to repeat them despite our best intentions.