14 November 2016
The term addiction, derived from the Latin root addicere meaning to adore or to surrender oneself to a master, has come into increasing popularity during the last decade. It first came into common usage in the professional literature of the mid-1890s—the same period the terms dope and dope fiend were coming into common slang. 25 Dope came into common usage first to refer to any syrupy preparation and later to designate products containing opium and cocaine. The changing view of drug use was reflected in the combining dope with the word friend – a German derivative referring to a diabolically wicked and hated person.
Even a brief analysis of the principles of rehabilitation programs shows that the philosophy of the majority of them won’t suffer a thing, if we consider them a moral correction programs, not a disease treatment ones. So, it turns out that theory and practice allow omitting the addiction as disease. And the question whether we can’t describe the alcoholism as a disease due to a lack of arguments or a lack of research evidence for the time being – is still unanswered.