An Existential Phenomenology of Addiction

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Existential phenomenology can be a particularly helpful philosophical method for understanding human experience. Starting from the perspective of the subject, it can clarify and problematize subtle everyday relations, enabling greater insight into difficult situations. Used by contemporary philosophers as a way of understanding the embodied experience of illness, this method has been helpful for understanding physical illness in the medical humanities, offering a fruitful way of reading the subjectivity of mental states. An Existential Phenomenology of Addiction examines how the experience of addiction engages both mental and physical phenomena within the existence of a particular human life, using the philosophy of Emmanuel Lvinas and Sren Kierkegaard. The book maps out an existential phenomenology of subject-in-relation. Both Lvinas and Kierkegaard use decidedly psychological and theological language to situate their philosophy, discussing the subject through concepts of love, otherness, responsibility and hope, while played out in a situation of anxiety, suffering, desire and revelation. Combining existential phenomenological discourse with contemporary addiction discourse, Westin argues that the concept of subject as addict, as found in the Twelve Steps Program and disease models of addiction, ought to be replaced with the free and relational identity of subject as addicted.

Reviews

In this absorbing and original book, Anna Westin explores the contested human experience of addiction through a dialogue between Lvinas, Kierkegaard and the Twelve Step program. Her account offers rich food for thought, showing how it is possible to speak of love, freedom and hope even in the context of addiction. * Neil Messer, Professor of Theology, University of Winchester, UK *
This is a highly interesting book. It provides enthralling reflections on an intensely debated matter addiction by examining the addictive experience through the lens of an existential phenomenology of freedom, relation and hope. Through careful readings of Kierkegaard and Lvinas, Anna Westin explores new ways of engaging with the lived experience of the addicted subject. Impressive and thought-provoking. A conscientious examination of the conditions of possibility for an existential phenomenology of freedom, relation and hope. * Michael Azar, Professor, Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion. University of Gothenburg, Sweden *
Westins much-needed exploration of the addiction experience is a thoughtful, honest, and penetrating analysis that warrants attentive reading even by those untouched by addiction or outside the therapeutic arena. * Journal of Phenomenological Psychology *

Author Bio

Anna Westin is Visiting Lecturer at London School of Theology and Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.