Addictions: Social Issues

Streaming video - 2003

Addictions take many forms, and know no boundaries of race, religion, gender, or class. For many, addictions not only lead to emotional and physical misery, but also lead into the criminal justice system. This video views addictions from a holistic perspective — mind, body and spirit — with an explanation for the increasing rate of addiction in our culture as being reflective of a loss of a fundamental element — rituals that initiate the individual into the society. This view sees rituals that have historically satisfied psychological needs related to being and belonging as, for the most part, now lost to us. This perspective also addresses the significance of several other origins of addiction including biochemical/genetic predisposi...tion, undiagnosed medical problems, primary psychiatric illness, personality disorders, and disruptions of social structures.. more