In the realm of hungry ghosts: close encounters with addiction

Author's Note

Preface to the U.S. Edition

Foreword by Peter Levine

Hungry Ghosts: The Realm of Addiction

Part I. Hellbound Train

1. The Only Home He's Ever Had

2. The Lethal Hold of Drugs

3. The Keys of Paradise: Addiction as a Flight from Distress

4. You Wouldn't Believe My Life Story

5. Angela's Grandfather

6. Pregnancy Journal

7. Beethoven's Birth Room

8. There's Got to Be Some Light

Part II. Physician, Heal Thyself

9. Takes One to Know One

10. Twelve-Step Journal: April 5, 2006

Part III. A Different State of The Brain

11. What Is Addiction?

12. From Vietnam to "Rat Park": Do Drugs Cause Addiction?

13. A Different State of the Brain

14. Through a Needle, a Warm, Soft Hug

15. Cocaine, Dopamine, and Candy Bars: The Incentive System in Addiction

16. Like a Child Not Released

Part IV. How the Addicted Brain Develops

17. Their Brains Never Had a Chance

18. Trauma, Stress, and the Biology of Addiction

19. It's Not in the Genes

Part V. The Addiction Process and The Addictive Personality

20. "A Void I'll Do Anything to Avoid"

21. Too Much Time on External Things: The Addiction-Prone Personality

22. Poor Substitutes for Love: Behavioral Addictions and Their Origins

Part VI. Imagining a Humane Reality: Beyond The War on Drugs

23. The Social Roots of Addiction

24. Know Thine Enemy

25. "Ignorant Fanaticism": The Failed War on Drugs

26. Freedom of Choice and the Choice of Freedom

27. Toward an Enlightened Social Policy on Drugs

28. Reducing Harm

Part VII. The Ecology of Healing

29. The Power of Compassionate Curiosity

30. The Internal Climate

31. The Four Steps, Plus One

32. Sobriety and the External Milieu

33. A Word to Families, Friends, and Caregivers

34. There Is Nothing Lost: Addiction and the Spiritual Quest

Memories and Miracles: An Epilogue

Postscript

Appendices

I. Fallacies of Adoption and Twin Studies

II. A Close Link: Attention Deficit Disorder and Addicrions

III. The Prevention of Addiction

IV. The Twelve Steps

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

Permissions

Index

About the Author

Hellbound train

Physician, heal thyself

A different state of the brain

How the addicted brain develops

The addiction process and the addictive personality

Imagining a humane reality: beyond the war on drugs

The ecology of healing.