In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

There is a host of questions to be considered. Among them:

• What are the causes of addictions?

• What is the nature of the addiction-prone personality?

• What happens physiologically in the brains of addicted people?

• How much choice does the addict really have?

• Why is the “War on Drugs” a failure and what might be a humane, evidence-based approach to the treatment of severe drug addiction?

• What are some of the paths for redeeming addicted minds not dependent on powerful substances—that is, how do we approach the healing of the many behaviour addictions fostered by our culture?

You slink around your life with a hungry look,” someone close once said to me. Facing the harmful compulsions of my patients, I have had to encounter my own.

No society can understand itself without looking at its shadow side.