Overview
You might have guessed that the title is a bit sensationalist; “Should we embrace addicts?” sounds less controversial, doesn’t it? That’s what Elizabeth F.S. Roberts actually suggests here though, and it’s a reasonable challenge to the hyperindividualism that’s become standard in America. As she says:
“In the United States, a predominantly Protestant nation, which preaches individuality, we suspect dependency of any kind. While my neighbors in Mexico City embraced dependency as key to survival, in the United States, we are profoundly uncomfortable feeling dependent on anything or anyone. This discomfort is ever-present in how we define addiction…”
I don’t disagree with this chunk at all. In fact, the longer I’ve been exposed to recovery circles, the more this becomes obvious. There’s a consistent pattern in American recovery approaches attempting to fuse concepts from cultural traditions that emphasize interconnectedness and impermanence without any changes to the atomized society we exist in. This isn’t to say that the compulsive habits are perceived as a good thing in other cultures, but dependence on something external is far less likely to be treated as a pathology warranting punitive measures than a cause for sympathy and charity.