Whether or not addiction is best seen as a chronic brain disease is perhaps the most crucial issue facing the field of addiction studies in our time. In the midst of this debate, it is essential that we acquire an understanding of the brain disease model as a socio-cultural process-its influence on how people and societies perceive forms of addiction as problems. This book goes a long way to achieving that aim. By giving an independent role to constructs, notions and representations, the authors are able to depict the symbolic force by which neuroscience and other stakeholders in the brain disease understanding of addiction have an impact on both expert and popular perceptions. The social and ethical consequences of this cannot be stressed enough.
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