London Thinks – Is Addiction a Disease?

Marc Lewis and Johann Hari discuss the stories of addiction and the war on drugs. Does the disease model do more harm than good – both to the research enterprise and to the lives of addicts themselves? He also will argue that recovery from addiction is indeed possible.

Prof Marc Lewis is Professor of Development Psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He is the author of Memoirs of an Addicted Brain. His new book is The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease, and it has already stirred controversy among addicts, their families, and treatment providers. Lewis claims that the scientific facts don’t support the disease model of addiction. Rather, addiction, like romantic love, develops through accelerated learning. Combining scientific views with intimate biographies of addicts who recovered, the book also shows how addiction can be overcome, through self-directed change in one’s goals and perspectives.

Johann Hari has written for many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Le Monde, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, the New Republic, the Nation, Slate, El Mundo, and the Sydney Morning Herald. He was a lead op-ed columnist for the Independent, one of Britain’s leading newspapers, for nine years. He is the author of Chasing the Scream.

Podcast Archive

Runtime 90 mins. No break.

Doors 18:45. Start 19:30.

Copies of Chasing the Scream and The Biology of Desire will be available to purchase on the night, courtesy of our local independent bookseller, Newham Bookshop.