Constructing Addiction from Experience and Context: Peele and Brodsky's Love and Addiction Revisited

Abstract

Peele and Brodsky (1975) first proposed the experiential-constructivist model of addiction utilizing the construct of compulsive interpersonal attachment (then not viewed as an addiction) as a vehicle to argue that substance addiction is rooted in experiential and contextual forces. One of these contextual forces is the prevalence of the disease mindset itself. With increasing legitimacy accorded to disordered love attachments as addiction “diseases,” we can now explore this hypothesis in relation to sexual addiction using as illustration religious “chaste sex addicts” and Homosexuals Anonymous. Treatment recommendations are then considered in the light of effective interventions outside of the disease model.

Notes

¹Exodus International is the worldwide umbrella organization of disparate Protestant Christian ministries devoted to helping same-sex attracted individuals “recover” from homosexuality through spiritually mediated methods.

²As it is, Single-Minded employs the principles of EFT, a treatment approach used with couples and families, but because of its preventive focus and use with singles, it is not EFT per se. We liken our approach more to emotional skills coaching as we are seeking to educate clients on the adaptiveness of their emotions, and to use their emotions as the fulcrum for recognizing and validating needs and choosing adaptive behaviors in place of sexual coping.

³Spitzer is especially notable for publishing this study given that he served on the American Psychiatric Association's task force which, in 1973, recommended the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Spitzer has not reversed his position that homosexuality is not a disorder. He seems to be on an honest scientific quest unswayed by any religious agenda, yet for asking politically unpopular questions, he has gone from being lauded by the GLBT community to being accused of violating the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics for reinforcing the stigmatization and mental suffering of the GLBT community (Wainberg et al., 2003).

⁴This is a position that makes complete sense only if one considers that heterosexuality is just as inherently compulsive for the straight person who wishes that he or she were not attracted to members of the opposite sex.

⁵Among the paraphilic disorders to which the author likens homosexuality are: “Pedophilia, transvestic fetishism, paraphilic rape fantasies, compulsive paraphilic masturbation, cross dressing, and exhibitionism” (Satinover, 1996, pp. 192–193).