Summary and Conclusion

Since the 18th century, western man has organised particular behaviours into a specific, unitary phenomenon — namely, 'addiction' — as if this combination of behaviours is a distinct and real entity. The reasons why this combination of behaviours is created is not different from the reasons why the behavioural entity 'possessed by the devil' was created as the by-product of a past, religious, world view. These reasons are located in the necessity to recognise barriers that keep us from reaching our ultimate cultural ambitions, and to manage the fears these barriers instil within us. 'Addiction' is easily recognised by the culturally initiated, in the same way as in voodoo culture the impact of particular Spirits is recognised out of behavioural elements that a non-initiated person would not even see, or would understand in a completely different way. The construct of 'addiction' will serve modern man as long as it lives inside a world view that understands humans as self-steering, autonomous and entrepreneurial. The positive cultural construct of the autonomous individual, "tempered by self-examination, self-discipline, self-control"[15] is highlighted by the cultural construct of its negative counterpart. Modern man will marginalise, kill, maim, imprison or ignore 'addicts' to the degree that they threaten the core of his individualistic interpretation of himself, or that they instil fear that he may loose the characteristics by which this interpretation is defined. Modern man is a witch hunter and Inquisitor.

Our theories concerning the individual are deeply cultural. Scientifically, they are at best lacking, farcical at worst. They are inherited from the Reformation and its Renaissance roots. It is, of course, a fiction that individual persons steer themselves, as if an inner compass were installed in each of us.