Organized by Hannah Henry, founder of Teach Truth California, each month the Teach Truth Book Club will feature an ethnic studies expert who will lead the discussion around a specific title and topic.
James "JT" Thompson will lead the discussion this evening.
Thank you for registering for this free event. Your RSVP helps us plan for your attendance. We look forward to welcoming you!
ABOUT THE BOOK
More people than ever before see themselves as addicted to, or recovering from, addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs, prescription meds, sex, gambling, porn, or the internet. But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment.
Challenging both the idea of the addict's “broken brain” and the notion of a simple “addictive personality,” Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum -- and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery- and why there is no “addictive personality” or single treatment that works for all.
Combining Maia Szalavitz’s personal story with a distillation of more than 25 years of science and research, Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAIA SZALAVITZ is widely viewed as one of the premier American journalists covering addiction and drugs. A neuroscience writer for TIME.com and a former cocaine and heroin addict, she understands the science and its personal dimensions in a way that few others can. She is co-author of Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential - and Endangered and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, both with Dr. Bruce D. Perry. Her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids is the first book-length exposé of the "tough love" business that dominates addiction treatment. She writes for a variety of publications includingTIME.com, theNew York Times, New York Magazine, Pacific Standard, Scientific American, Nautilus, Matter, Elle, Psychology Today, VICE, and Marie Claire.
