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Psychology Professor Co-Edits Book About Addiction
Dr. Yael Baldwin, associate professor of psychology at Mars Hill College, recently co-edited and published the book Lacan and Addictions: An Anthology, a compilation of papers from a 2006 conference where Lacanian psychologists and adherents from around the world gathered to speak about addictions.
Baldwin’s co-editors were Dr. Kareen R. Malone, a professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program at the University of West Georgia and a fellow of the American Psychological Association; and Dr. Thomas Svolos, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry and director of the division of psychoanalysis at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska.
According to Baldwin, participants at the Lacanian conference explored the complexity of addiction and treatment for the individual, society and clinicians.
“In the current climate, where addiction is mostly treated by variations of twelve step approaches and psychopharmacology, it is all too easy to lose sight of the dimensions of addiction that render it not just a disease to be managed but rather a significant form of human suffering and a subjective responsibility, both of which are critical components of addiction treatment,” Baldwin said.
More and more, Baldwin said, addiction treatment is turning away from psychological and psychoanalytic theorization and towards psychopharmacological measures. The anthology is an attempt to offer alternatives that might rectify that situation.