Dream On

Addiction

Before the Devil Knows You're Hooked

Lynn Phillips on March 4, 2014

Champions of "personal responsibility" believe that moral censure can prevent addiction and spur addicts’ recovery by removing “incentives” to use drugs. The recovery community diagnoses addiction as a medical condition that blame can’t help. In the end, Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn’t saved by either camp.

Champions of "personal responsibility" believe that moral censure can prevent addiction and spur addicts’ recovery by removing “incentives” to use drugs. The recovery community diagnoses addiction as a medical condition that blame can’t help. In the end, Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn’t saved by either camp.

Addiction

Taking to Drink

Lynn Phillips on December 12, 2012

When the late Gore Vidal compared his fondness for the lecture circuit to “taking to drink,” was he suggesting that having an audience was potentially addictive—or something more personal and interesting?

When the late Gore Vidal compared his fondness for the lecture circuit to “taking to drink,” was he suggesting that having an audience was potentially addictive—or something more personal and interesting?

Sex

A Valentine's Day Proposition

Lynn Phillips on February 13, 2012

Prepare to cut up a few scientific journals into valentines. Last time out we marveled at how often the phrase “casual sex” twists therapists' minds into strange positions.This week we take a poke at some dubious research on women’s desire for “casual sex,” addressing Freud’s famous Valentine’s Day question, “What do women want, and is it me?”

Prepare to cut up a few scientific journals into valentines. Last time out we marveled at how often the phrase “casual sex” twists therapists' minds into strange positions.This week we take a poke at some dubious research on women’s desire for “casual sex,” addressing Freud’s famous Valentine’s Day question, “What do women want, and is it me?”

The phrase “casual sex” turns out to be a most treacherously roomy category. It can include good sex, bad sex, safe sex, risky sex, sex alone or with others, sex with friends or strangers, sex with partners older or younger. But few who use the term seem to notice.

Embarrassment

Playing With One's Self

Lynn Phillips on December 4, 2011

Computer solitaire, originally packaged with Windows to make computers and mouse technique easier for new users to grasp, can become a huge time sink, even for people like me who flatter themselves that they're too smart and engaged with life to get hooked on it.

Computer solitaire, originally packaged with Windows to make computers and mouse technique easier for new users to grasp, can become a huge time sink, even for people like me who flatter themselves that they're too smart and engaged with life to get hooked on it.

Bias

Humans vs. Humanity

Lynn Phillips on October 31, 2011

If the bulk of our psychological experiments in the U.S. apply only to the globe’s 5%, a great many experimental findings are due for a do-over.

If the bulk of our psychological experiments in the U.S. apply only to the globe’s 5%, a great many experimental findings are due for a do-over.

Addiction

The Boss of Me

Lynn Phillips on September 30, 2011

There's not much room for debate about addiction's ability to impair in some brains whatever passes for individual autonomy. Emphasis here on the word "some."

There's not much room for debate about addiction's ability to impair in some brains whatever passes for individual autonomy. Emphasis here on the word "some."

Neuroscience

Are You Not Who You Think?

Lynn Phillips on August 31, 2011

American individualism imagines a sovereign self--- free of adulterations like addiction and social control; but neuroscience questions whether this is possible.

American individualism imagines a sovereign self--- free of adulterations like addiction and social control; but neuroscience questions whether this is possible.

Addiction

Amy Winehouse---What We Need to Know Know Know

Lynn Phillips on August 4, 2011

Because addictions are dangerous and dehumanizing, our unexamined assumptions about them can make them more so.

Because addictions are dangerous and dehumanizing, our unexamined assumptions about them can make them more so.

Diet

Devil's Food

Lynn Phillips on July 15, 2011

So tempting is it to blame biblical literalism for the Bible Belt's defects, that I have found a way to do it. But the truly satanic force behind physical decay and moral perversion in the Bible-thumping states may be less grandiose: fish fingers, say, or chicken nuggets.

So tempting is it to blame biblical literalism for the Bible Belt's defects, that I have found a way to do it. But the truly satanic force behind physical decay and moral perversion in the Bible-thumping states may be less grandiose: fish fingers, say, or chicken nuggets.

Addiction

Read Her Lips

Lynn Phillips on June 16, 2011

The video is choppy as a coke fiend’s razor blade. She puts the needle into the record’s groove instead of into her arm. She’s in Paris. There’s a town car, a gray Bentley, headed her way. Dior hopes to hook you on the latest version of Dior Addict lipstick. But it’s the ad itself that’s addictive.

The video is choppy as a coke fiend’s razor blade. She puts the needle into the record’s groove instead of into her arm. She’s in Paris. There’s a town car, a gray Bentley, headed her way. Dior hopes to hook you on the latest version of Dior Addict lipstick. But it’s the ad itself that’s addictive.

Self-Control

Springtime for Hitler

Lynn Phillips on May 27, 2011

While drinking excessively puts your at risk for addiction, quitting drinking carries some strange risks as well, as Lars Von Trier found out at the Cannes Film Festival, where he made a rambling speech that got him banished as an anti-Semite.

While drinking excessively puts your at risk for addiction, quitting drinking carries some strange risks as well, as Lars Von Trier found out at the Cannes Film Festival, where he made a rambling speech that got him banished as an anti-Semite.

Anger

The Crazy Button

Lynn Phillips on May 4, 2011

Actor and rock star Meat Loaf could feel his meltdown coming. "My switch is this close. It's going to get ugly if I get angry," Meat Loaf promised team mate Mark McGrath. I say "promised" rather than "warned," because I recognized the signs...

Actor and rock star Meat Loaf could feel his meltdown coming. "My switch is this close. It's going to get ugly if I get angry," Meat Loaf promised team mate Mark McGrath. I say "promised" rather than "warned," because I recognized the signs...

Addiction

Is Addiction a Social Disease?

Lynn Phillips on April 17, 2011

Does getting paid in millions get people hooked on an executive compensation high? Is addiction the most useful way to think about our craving for oil, or Wall Street’s compulsion to repackage bad loans in pursuit of profit? Is the very concept of addiction so addictive that we can’t stop using it, even when it isn’t the best metaphor for the job?

Does getting paid in millions get people hooked on an executive compensation high? Is addiction the most useful way to think about our craving for oil, or Wall Street’s compulsion to repackage bad loans in pursuit of profit? Is the very concept of addiction so addictive that we can’t stop using it, even when it isn’t the best metaphor for the job?

Aging

Shrinks on the Nod

Lynn Phillips on March 20, 2011

Psychotherapist Lee Kassan and others discuss the problem of therapists who get too old to do their jobs well but too attached to their careers to bow out, and how you---whether you're a therapist of a patient, can most gracefully protect yourself.

Psychotherapist Lee Kassan and others discuss the problem of therapists who get too old to do their jobs well but too attached to their careers to bow out, and how you---whether you're a therapist of a patient, can most gracefully protect yourself.

Addiction

PixElation

Lynn Phillips on March 1, 2011

How dangerous is electronic media addiction really? How seductive are the bright lights and tiny cities of our new playthings? How permanently damaging, how difficult to manage are the various degrees of immersion they induce in young people?

How dangerous is electronic media addiction really? How seductive are the bright lights and tiny cities of our new playthings? How permanently damaging, how difficult to manage are the various degrees of immersion they induce in young people?

Career

The Devil's Playthings

Lynn Phillips on February 7, 2011

To maintain their equilibrium, many celebrities, those whose existence depends on the ability to project fabulousness and desirability, seem to need alternate identities, something that can counter the drug of objectified desire with vitamin shots of being useful or “good.”

To maintain their equilibrium, many celebrities, those whose existence depends on the ability to project fabulousness and desirability, seem to need alternate identities, something that can counter the drug of objectified desire with vitamin shots of being useful or “good.”

Addiction

Patti Smith’s soul mate---Robert Mapplethorpe, or Madame Bovary?

Lynn Phillips on January 14, 2011

Smith writes: "Everyone took it for granted that I did drugs because of the way I looked." But, she adds, "I refused to shoot up." Nevertheless, her youth is spent in a riptide of desire, much like Gustave Flaubert's creation, the romantic obsessive Madame Bovary....

Smith writes: "Everyone took it for granted that I did drugs because of the way I looked." But, she adds, "I refused to shoot up." Nevertheless, her youth is spent in a riptide of desire, much like Gustave Flaubert's creation, the romantic obsessive Madame Bovary....

Addiction

Rehab in Rewrite

Lynn Phillips on September 23, 2010

Today's drug addict as depicted in popular media - once a committed outsider - a terrifying degenerate or brilliant outlaw, often some semi-aristocrat like William Burroughs or Dr. Gregory House -- is now competing, not always successfully, with a bunch of nobodies who want to rejoin society, like the overweight hoarder and the washed-up semi-celeb. In my last column I ruled out a few possible causes. This time out, I'm looking for what's driving the shift. 

Today's drug addict as depicted in popular media - once a committed outsider - a terrifying degenerate or brilliant outlaw, often some semi-aristocrat like William Burroughs or Dr. Gregory House -- is now competing, not always successfully, with a bunch of nobodies who want to rejoin society, like the overweight hoarder and the washed-up semi-celeb. In my last column I ruled out a few possible causes. This time out, I'm looking for what's driving the shift. 

Fear

Our Rehab Habit

Lynn Phillips on August 3, 2010

American culture seems to be turning into an addiction theme park. In addition to the usual books, plays and songs about addiction, television reality shows are flooding the airwaves with shows about people who just can't seem to stop doing self-destructive things. Programs featuring hoarders, rehab, cartels, intervention, halfway houses, addicted celebrities, binge eating and excessive pet adoptions are now strewn through every cable line-up like used works in a rust-belt drug den. But one of the most remarkable features of the addiction media boom is its banality.Unlike the geniuses and rockers, the delinquents and beats, bad boys and fast girls of old, most of the addicts we're seeing these days are deglamorized: witless and spotty, stripped of distinguishing verbal and sartorial style, they don't start out high enough to work up any momentum on the way down. Why is that? What's going on?

American culture seems to be turning into an addiction theme park. In addition to the usual books, plays and songs about addiction, television reality shows are flooding the airwaves with shows about people who just can't seem to stop doing self-destructive things. Programs featuring hoarders, rehab, cartels, intervention, halfway houses, addicted celebrities, binge eating and excessive pet adoptions are now strewn through every cable line-up like used works in a rust-belt drug den. But one of the most remarkable features of the addiction media boom is its banality.Unlike the geniuses and rockers, the delinquents and beats, bad boys and fast girls of old, most of the addicts we're seeing these days are deglamorized: witless and spotty, stripped of distinguishing verbal and sartorial style, they don't start out high enough to work up any momentum on the way down. Why is that? What's going on?