The “rat park” guy

~ Jason Schwartz

Bruce Alexander A Global Historical View Of Addiction And The Future Of Addiction Treatment FEADSeveral recent books have attempted to refute the disease model of addiction over the last few years. (See here, here, here and here for some examples.)

All of these books cite Bruce Alexander’s “rat park” experiments as important evidence that addiction is not a brain disease.

If you’ve ever been curious about Bruce Alexander, here’s your chance to watch a talk he gave earlier this year.

Is the disease model really in doubt?

I believe that there is no serious scientific disagreement about the matter.

Here are a couple of talks that explain the disease model.

First, NIDA Director Norak Volkow:

Second, Kevin McCauley in our own education series:

 

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.