As Stanford University’s acclaimed psychologist Albert Bandura declared in a major research review, “alcohol abuse is not a monolithic condition with an inevitable progression” but rather, “a multi-determined pattern” varying from person to person in its severity and causation.

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Keep in mind, in 1990, 20 years ago, Dr. Thomas Horvath was the President of Division 50 of the American Psychological Association (APA), which was the largest body of addiction researchers in the U.S. When he left that position and started his own recovery treatment, neither AA nor 12 Step based philosophy were part of his approach. In fact, from this highly respected organization of academics and scholars, he thought that these traditional approaches may actually be harmful for many people. Why? Because when you outsource your control to anything but your own autonomy and subjectivity, you are no longer free. By, labeling yourself as powerless, you remove personal responsibility for other areas of your life as well. Sobriety without well-being is not really recovery. Unfortunately, much of science has been ignored in regards to the causes and effective treatments for addiction if they are not based on biological assumptions.

Great minds like Carl Jung and William James had no luck understanding how to treat someone whose behavior was impaired and inappropriate after becoming intoxicated. Jung stated that only a religious type of conversion would help the person and James referred to the sick minded soul that was prime for a conversion experience because the person was in so much life distress. Research by the NIAAA states that in regards to heavy drinking and chronic and severe dependency less then 5% of those who drank 5 or more drinks a day would be considered part of this hitting rock bottom group. But, what about the other 95%. Remember, you don't have to be an alcoholic to get a DUI. You don't have to be a drug addict to get arrested for possession. You don't have to be addicted to have problems with addictive behavior. You don't have to be biological impaired and diseased, spiritually or otherwise, to just be having some problems living your life and choosing inappropriate ways in which to cope.

Keep in mind, the word addiction does not even appear in the DSM-IV. I understand it will be included in the next addition. The word alcoholic or alcoholism do not appear as well. How did addiction become part of our language? It can be traced to behavior. The Father of Psychiatry, Benjamin Rush during the late 18th early 19th centuries was a respected physician. He was also a moralist and a religious man. Public drunkenness was a major problem in the past. Religious and moral movements like the Temperance movement which acted much like a lobby organization we see today in Washington, D.C., condemned intoxication as evil, demonic and unholy. Let me stop right here and jump ahead. AA was originally created for white, Christian men. When you suggest to someone that you do not approve of their behavior and they have a trace of religious indoctrination, you will have found someone, for example, an Irish-Catholic, who is susceptible to shame and guilt. Rush determined that no one would voluntarily behave inappropriately unless they had a disordered brain. This was progress. A disordered biological explanation made more sense then being possessed by demons or evil spirits. Thereafter, this became ingrained in our culture.