The Consciousness of Addiction: Toward a General Theory of Compulsive Consumption

This article reviews and integrates recent theories of addiction drawn from a diverse set of disciplines--consumer behavior, medicine, sociology, psychiatry, and psychology--to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the etiology of addiction and other compulsive consumer behaviors. Interpretive material from personal interviews with addicted and nonaddicted drug users is then used to illustrate the consciousness of addictive consumption. Two a priori themes--serial/simultaneous addictions and personal crises/role transitions--and five emergent themes--relapse, deception, dysfunctional families, suicide, and boundaries--are discussed. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.