Stanton Peele is a psychologist who has changed the addiction field.
He has pioneered, among other things, the idea that addiction occurs with a range of experiences, recognition of natural recovery from addiction, and the harm reduction approach to addiction.
This site includes many of his widely read writings (see, for example, Why Addiction Isn't a Disease) and media appearances, including Oprah, Bill O'Reilly and Fox & Friends.
Created in 1996, this website is one of the oldest in the world. The goal then was the same as it is today: To make Stanton Peele's writings and ideas available to a large audience, for free if possible.
Please see the Online Library for a large collection of articles and book chapters written by Stanton Peele, or visit the Bookstore for his books. Stanton's Life Process Program is available as an online addiction program.
Stanton on The Today Show
On May 25th, Stanton will be appearing on the Today Show at 8.15 AM offering a brief retort to three women who believe their families inherited addiction.
Paperback Edition of Recover!
Stanton Peele and Ilse Thompson have released the paperback version of Recover! An Empowering Program to Help You Stop Thinking Like an Addict and Reclaim Your Life.
More about the paperback edition of Recover!...
Summary of Stanton's work for his appearance on Recovery Radio:
https://www.lastdoor.org/world-addiction-treatment-expert-dr-stanton-peele/
Stanton began working on Love and Addiction (which was published in 1975) in 1970. In these forty years he has predicted a remarkable number of addiction trends. By now it is clear that the way in which Stanton has reframed addiction for the past four decades – sometimes facing extreme opposition – has been prescient. Addiction is not a consequence of taking drugs and drinking. Rather, it arises from the way in which these and other compelling activities fit into people’s lives and meanings. We are only now as a society beginning to come to grips with his insights.
Talking about Addiction for Kids and Young Adults – SMART Approaches with Drs. Stanton Peele and Tom Horvath
The webinar on kids and addiction with Tom Horvath is available:
http://smartrecovery.libsyn.com/webinar-talking-about-addic…
This is a wide-ranging talk about addiction and today’s youth and teens. Dr. Horvath, SMART’s President, interviews Dr. Stanton Peele on what is needed in society, in public policy, for parents, and for those in the caring and justice professions, to better help our young people. For young adults, we want to show you the power of making your own choices and having solid resources for decision-making readily available, so you can assess what’s best for you and live lives of freedom and power.
Stanton's latest work
- Addiction Is Always There—How To Keep From Drowning In It
- America’s Addiction Treatment Trap
- Ted Kennedy Was Not an Alcoholic
- Carly Fiorina Loves Addiction Treatment, But Hates Drug Legalization
- Two Approaches to Harm Reduction: Goal-Setting and Meaning
- Studies Show that Drinking Problems Are Increasing. Here's Why.
- Addiction Is as American as Apple Pie
- Karl Ove Knausgaard and James Boswell: Fellow Memoirists and Alcoholics?
- When Drug Therapies for Addiction Are Dangerous
- How I Became an Addiction Expert
- Can People Outgrow Sex Addiction?
- 12 Concepts of Recovery That Have Stood the Test of Time
- Questioning the 12-Step Orthodoxy
- Is Addiction a Brain Disease?
- Legalizing Drugs Challenges the Addiction Brain Disease Theory
- The New Recovery
- Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate People into AA
- Addiction as a Social Disease
- Is Addiction a Chronic Brain Disease?
- Let People Choose Their Own Drug Policies. What if we just allowed people to take drugs in a supportive social milieu that clearly signals appropriate behavior?
- I Learned It by Watching You: How Television Distorts Drug Addiction
- The Hijacking of Sobriety by the Recovery Movement
- Addicted to Brain Scans
- George Washington: Boozehound
- Government Says You Can’t Overcome Addiction, Contrary to What Government Research Shows
- Philip Seymour Hoffman Was Taught To Be Helpless Before Drugs
- I'm Single-Handedly Preserving the World's Wine Cultures - Any Help Out There?
- Shocked, Shocked
- Impeach Democratic Presidents Bill
- The Search for Mental Illness and Addiction in the Brain, Part III: The DSM-5 War Over What Being Human Means
- The Search for Mental Illness and Addiction in the Brain, Part I: The Disappointment of the Human Genome Project
- AA is Ruining the World
- Two Sick Men
- Love and Addiction, Part II: Amy Winehouse
- A Brief History of Disease Theory and Harm Reduction Treatment in the US
- Addiction Prevention: Can Your Child Avoid Addiction?
- When and How Do You Help Crazy People?
- How to Talk to Crazy People II: The Continuum from Normal to Crazy
- How to Talk to Crazy People
- Dear Mr. President, Please Think Carefully About Drugs and Your Daughters
- Out With Your Old “Addict” Identity, and In With Something Better
- Please, Don’t Use the Deaths of Famous 12-Steppers to Recommend the 12 Steps
- For the Last Time: “Sobriety” Does Not Mean “Abstinence”
- The Addictive Effects of Drugs Are Above All Culturally Determined
- Forget What They Tell You: Denial Can Help You to Recover From Addiction
- What Can a Teenage Murder-Suicide Tell Us About Addiction?
- Dear Joe Biden, Is Cocaine Use Still Either a Crime or a Disease?
- My Application Letter to Be America’s Drug Czar
- We Need to Normalize Drug Use in Our Society—Deal With It!
- The Surgeon General’s Addiction Report Repeats Old Bromides—Here’s What He Ought to Be Telling Us. The Influence, November 21, 2016.
- Anyone Can Escape Addiction—But Fatalistic Views of Biology or Trauma Persuade People Otherwise. The Influence, October 21, 2016.
- Dr. Stanton Peele. Cognitive Rampage, streamed live on October 11th, 2016.
- People Control Their Addictions. No matter how much the “chronic” brain disease model of addiction indicates otherwise, we know that people can quit addictions—with special reference to harm reduction and mindfulness. Addictive Behaviors Reports (2016)
- Count Me Out of “Recovery Nation”—Negative Self-Identity Is the Cruelest Stigma of All. The Influence, July 7, 2016.
- Did I Just Win My 30-Year Debate With Ethan Nadelmann? The Influence, June 21, 2016.
- The New Eugenics: Why Genetic Theories of Mental Illness and Addiction Are a Damaging Dead End. The Influence, May 9, 2016.
- The Shipwreck That Is ABAM: Ten Reasons the "New" Medical Model of Addiction Is Doomed. The Influence.
- The Medical Report Shows Fentanyl—And That Media Narratives Around Prince’s Death Are Deadly. The Influence, June 3, 2016.
- Reports on Prince's Death Underline Our Desperate Need to Learn to Use Drugs Better. The Influence, April 25, 2016.
- Who Pays for Our Addiction to Trauma Theory? The Poor, Even More Than the Rest of Us. The Influence, March 2016.
- Ibogaine to Cure Addiction? A Hot Take on Mexico’s Global Ibo Conference. The Influence, March 2016.
- Karl Ove Knausgård: In America, an Alcoholic—In Scandinavia, Just a Genius. The Influence, March 2016.
- Death, Addiction, and Trump: The Donald is Winning Where White People Are Dying Early. Alternet, March 24, 2016.
- Meet the Renowned Novelist Who Is a Binge-Drinking Drunk — But Not an Alcoholic. The Influence, March 14, 2016.
- How Placebos Prove That People Conquer Addiction With Their Minds. The Influence, 2016.
- The Nightmare Scenario: President Donald Trump Dictates US Drug Policy. The Influence, March 2016.
- Why We're Losing the War on Addiction. The Influence, February 2016.
- Why we will never solve our heroin/addiction issues, in six easy points, AKA "the middle-class heroin epidemic"
- How I Practice Self-Empowering Addiction Treatment. The Addiction Advisor, November 13, 2015.
- Why Treating Addiction as a Disease Isn’t Helpful. The Addiction Advisor, October 27, 2015.
- Peele, S. (2015). Why neurobiological models can't contain mental disorder and addiction. In Deacon, B., and McKay, D. (Eds.), The Biomedical Model of Psychological Problems. the Behavior Therapist, October 2015, 38(7): 218-222.
- Why Don’t Addiction Rates Ever Seem to Fall? Addiction.com, September 13, 2015.
- How To Succeed Where Your Kid's School Drug Prevention Program Fails. Fatherly, 24 August 2015.
- Stanton Peele and Natural Recovery. The Stanton Peele Addiction Website, June 2015.
- La dipendenza e' una patologia cronica del cervello? La tossicodipendenza non e' causata solamente dagli effetti degli stupefacenti. Dal Fare al Dire, No. 1, 2015, pp. 14-16.
- Does Legalizing Marijuana Lead to More Addiction?
- Recovery Narratives at War in the New York Times
- Reconsidering Addiction and Addiction Treatment: A Talk with Dr. Stanton Peele and DPA's asha bandele
- Webinar: Questioning Dr. Stanton Peele, with Dr. Tom Horvath
- Why You Should Stop Calling Yourself Crazy. Recovery.org, September 9, 2014.
- Recover! Stop Thinking Like an Addict and Reclaim Your Life with The PERFECT Program. Berkeley: Da Capo Press.
- A step too far? Drugs and Drink News, April 14, 2014.
- Addiction myths. RSA Fellowship Spring, 2012.
Stanton’s 40-Year Addiction Report Card
Stanton began working on Love and Addiction (which was published in 1975) in 1970. In these forty years he has predicted a remarkable number of addiction trends. By now it is clear that the way in which Stanton has reframed addiction for the past four decades – sometimes facing extreme opposition – has been prescient. Addiction is not a consequence of taking drugs and drinking. Rather, it arises from the way in which these and other compelling activities fit into people’s lives and meanings.
