Carl Erik Fisher on the Myths of Addiction

“So many of our concepts and even our words about addiction—like “disease,” or “permanent,” or the idea of a clear us/them dichotomy, or division between healthy and normal—it’s so freighted. There’s so much to be gained just from the process of undoing.”

Carl Erik Fisher is an addiction physician and bioethicist. He is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, where he works in the Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry. He also maintains a private psychiatry practice focusing on complementary and integrative approaches to treating addiction. His writing has appeared in Nautilus, Slate, and Scientific American MIND, among other outlets. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his partner and son.