What Is It Like to Be an Addict? Understanding Substance Abuse , by Owen Flanagan

'What addiction is, is very complicated', writes Owen Flanagan in the final chapter of his important new book, What is it like to be an addict? (p. 237). In many ways, the phrase condenses the outlook, style, and intellectual attitude that Flanagan brings to the various debates concerning substance addiction addressed in the book. At the core of Flanagan's Integrative theory is a picture of addiction as a fundamentally heterogeneous, multifarious, plural set of phenomena, not amenable to any single type of causal explanation. This picture is carefully outlined in Flanagan's characteristic writing style, using plain, straightforward language. And it is motivated by a concern for staying true to the (various kinds of) relevant facts rather than arguing for the superiority of any local, partial perspective on the ample set of issues being discussed.