Romancing Opiates

Romancing Opiates PDF Author: Theodore Dalrymple
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Book Description
For hundreds of years, addiction to drugs has seemed dangerous but with a hint of glamour. Addicts are a mystery to those who have never been one. They are presumed to be in touch with profound enlightenments of which non-addicts are ignorant. Theodore Dalrymple shows that doctors, psychologists, and social workers have always known these drug addictions to be false! They have created these myths to build lucrative method of expensive quasi-treatment.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater PDF Author: Thomas de Quincey
Publisher: Gottfried & Fritz
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 110

Book Description
A book about opium usage and the effects of addiction on the authors life.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Other Writings PDF Author: Thomas De Quincey
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191637904
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1389

Book Description
'I took it: - and in an hour, oh! Heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest depths, of the inner spirit! what an apocalypse of the world within me!' Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) launched a fascination with drug use and abuse that has continued from his day to ours. In the Confessions De Quincey invents recreational drug taking, but he also details both the lurid nightmares that beset him in the depths of his addiction as well as his humiliatingly futile attempts to renounce the drug. Suspiria de Profundis centres on the deep afflictions of De Quincey's childhood, and examines the powerful and often paradoxical relationship between drugs and human creativity. In 'The English Mail-Coach', the tragedies of De Quincey's past are played out with horrifying repetitiveness against a backdrop of Britain as a Protestant and an imperial power. This edition presents De Quincey's finest essays in impassioned autobiography, together with three appendices that are highlighted by a wealth of manuscript material related to the three main texts. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Mindreadings

Mindreadings PDF Author: Femi Oyebode
Publisher: RCPsych Publications
ISBN: 9781904671602
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Book Description
The authors explore the description and representation of mental states, lived distress, character of psychology and psychological institutional practices.

Admirable Evasions

Admirable Evasions PDF Author: Theodore Dalrymple
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594037884
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 71

Book Description
In Admirable Evasions, Theodore Dalrymple explains why human self-understanding has not been bettered by the false promises of the different schools of psychological thought. Most psychological explanations of human behavior are not only ludicrously inadequate oversimplifications, argues Dalrymple, they are socially harmful in that they allow those who believe in them to evade personal responsibility for their actions and to put the blame on a multitude of scapegoats: on their childhood, their genes, their neurochemistry, even on evolutionary pressures. Dalrymple reveals how the fashionable schools of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, modern neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology all prevent the kind of honest self-examination that is necessary to the formation of human character. Instead, they promote self-obsession without self-examination, and the gross overuse of medicines that affect the mind. Admirable Evasions also considers metaphysical objections to the assumptions of psychology, and suggests that literature is a far more illuminating window into the human condition than psychology could ever hope to be.

Ten Drugs

Ten Drugs PDF Author: Thomas Hager
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1683355318
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description
“The stories are skillfully told and entirely entertaining . . . An expert, mostly feel-good book about modern medicine” from the award-winning author (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine. Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book. “[An] absorbing new book.” —The New York Times Book Review “[A] well-written and engaging chronicle.” —The Wall Street Journal “Lucidly informative and compulsively readable.” —Publishers Weekly “Entertaining [and] insightful.” —Booklist “Well-written, well-researched and fascinating to read Ten Drugs provides an insightful look at how drugs have shaped modern medical practices. Towards the end of the book Hager writes that he ‘came away surprised by some of the things he had learned.’ I had the very same reaction.” —Penny Le Couteur, coauthor of Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History

Big White Ghetto

Big White Ghetto PDF Author: Kevin D. Williamson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621579948
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
"You can't truly understand the country you're living in without reading Williamson." —Rich Lowry, National Review "His observations on American culture, history, and politics capture the moment we're in—and where we are going." —Dana Perino, Fox News An Appalachian economy that uses cases of Pepsi as money. Life in a homeless camp in Austin. A young woman whose résumé reads, “Topless Chick, Uncredited.” Remorselessly unsentimental, Kevin D. Williamson is a chronicler of American underclass dysfunction unlike any other. From the hollows of Eastern Kentucky to the porn business in Las Vegas, from the casinos of Atlantic City to the heroin rehabs of New Orleans, he depicts an often brutal reality that does not fit nicely into any political narrative or comfort any partisan. Coming from the world he writes about, Williamson understands it in a way that most commentators on American politics and culture simply can’t. In these sometimes savage and often hilarious essays, he takes readers on a wild tour of the wreckage of the American republic—the “white minstrel show” of right-wing grievance politics, progressive politicians addicted to gambling revenue, the culture of passive victimhood, and the reality of permanent poverty. Unsparing yet never unsympathetic, Big White Ghetto provides essential insight into an enormous but forgotten segment of American society.

Pit of Shame

Pit of Shame PDF Author: Anthony Stokes
Publisher: Waterside Press
ISBN: 1906534454
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Book Description
'I know not whether Laws be right, Or whether Laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long.' Oscar Wilde (The Ballad of Reading Gaol) This unique work looks closely at the life and times of Reading Gaol prison during the period that Oscar Wilde was a prisoner there. The book also contains a number of new insights concerning Wilde's classic poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and offers fresh information about Oscar Wilde. Written by senior prison officer Anthony Stokes, Pit of Shame is based on upwards of ten years research and familiarity with the very fabric of Reading Gaol. It also tells of notorious and famous prisoners such as Thomas Jennings, Amelia Dyer (the 'Reading Baby Farmer') and actor Stacey Keach; examines the many hangings that took place at Reading over the years, including that of Trooper Charles Thomas Wooldridge — the 'C. T. W.' of Wilde's ballad; lists the chain of events that led to the rejection of capital punishment by the UK; and mentions the escapes, brutality, and corruption that took place. Anthony Stoke's compelling account outlines the rich and diverse history of this most famous of English prisons and tells of its many different and intriguing uses over the years, before Reading Gaol's modern-day reincarnation as an innovative and progressive young offender institution. There are chapters on internment in the wake of Ireland's Easter Rising, Reading's role as a local prison and borstal correctional center, and its use by the Canadian military for 'invisible prisoners.' All this is enhanced by fascinating period detail from archives, newspapers, and records. The appendices include a list of all executions at Reading Gaol, the historic Dietary Requirements, and Prison Rules. The 16 pages of illustrations include photographs and drawings of the prison and the hand-written entry in the Visiting Committee book concerning an ill-fated petition by Oscar Wilde to the Home Secretary; as well as that in the Execution Log for Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

You Will Die

You Will Die PDF Author: Robert Arthur
Publisher: Feral House
ISBN: 1936239469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
A book that vigorously defends heroin users and sex workers? In You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos Robert Arthur does that and more to demonstrate that taboos are not relics of primitive societies. America has its own ridiculous phobias and beliefs that cause tedium, suffering, and death. The government and the media use these taboos to lie and mislead. It is not a conspiracy, but by pushing panic for votes and viewers they thwart our pursuit of happiness. You Will Die exposes the fallacies and the history behind our taboos on excrement, sex, drugs, and death. Arthur uses racy readability and rigorous documentation to raze sacred shrines of political correctness on the left and of conventional wisdom on the right. From the proper way to defecate to how to reach nirvana, anticipate the unexpected. It is not simply a novel exploration of sex and drugs, but also of individuality, liberty, and the meaning of life. You Will Die gives readers a new way of seeing their world and allows them to make a more informed choice about living an authentic life. Winner of the 2008 Montaigne Medal awarded for most thought-provoking independent book. “… ya gotta fight back against the Sarah Palin ‘idiot herd’ with something.” Wayne Coyne, Lead Singer, The Flaming Lips “… one of my favorite books …” Mark Frauenfelder, Editor, Boing Boing “This book is a MUST READ! I loved it.” Dr. Mark Benn, Psychologist, Colorado State University

Alternative Models of Addiction

Alternative Models of Addiction PDF Author: Hanna Pickard
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889197131
Category : Addicts
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
For much of the 20th century, theories of addictive behaviour and motivation were polarized between two models. The first model viewed addiction as a moral failure for which addicts are rightly held responsible and judged accordingly. The second model, in contrast, viewed addiction as a specific brain disease caused by neurobiological adaptations occurring in response to chronic drug or alcohol use, and over which addicts have no choice or control. As our capacity to observe neurobiological phenomena improved, the second model became scientific orthodoxy, increasingly dominating addiction research and informing public understandings of addiction. More recently, however, a dissenting view has emerged within addiction research, based partly on new scientific research and partly on progress in philosophical and psychological understandings of relevant mental phenomena. This view does not revert to treating addiction as a moral failure, but nonetheless holds that addictive behaviour is fundamentally motivated by choice and subject to at least a degree of voluntary control. On this alternative model of addiction, addictive behaviour is an instrumental means to ends that are desired by the individual, although much controversy exists with respect to the rationality or irrationality of these ends, the degree and nature of the voluntary control of addictive behaviour and motivation, the explanation of the difference between addictive and non-addictive behaviour and motivation, and, lastly, the extent to which addictive behaviour and motivation is correctly characterised as pathological or diseased. This research topic includes papers in the traditions of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, law and social science that explore alternative understandings of addiction.
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