Works by
Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D.
(Psychologist, Writer)
[January 8, 1946 - ]

• 7 Tools to Beat Addiction (2004)
  Whether you are battling drugs, nicotine, alcohol, food, shopping, sex, or gambling, 7 Tools to Beat Addiction is a hands-on, practical guide to overcoming addiction of any kind. If you or a loved one are struggling with addiction but do not find that twelve-step or other treatment programs work for you, this book can help.
  
  In , internationally recognized expert Dr. Stanton Peele presents a program for addiction recovery based on research and clinical study and grounded in science. His program utilizes proven methods that people actually use to overcome addiction, with or without treatment. 7 Tools to Beat Addiction offers in-depth, interactive exercises that show you how to outgrow destructive habits by putting together the building blocks for a balanced, fulfilling, responsible life. Dr. Peele’s approach is founded on the following tools:

  • Values

  • Motivation

  • Rewards

  • Resources

  • Support

  • Maturity

  • Higher Goals

This no-nonsense guide will put you in charge of your own recovery.

• Addiction Proof Your Child: A Realistic Approach to Preventing Drug, Alcohol, and Other Dependencies (2000)

• Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in AA, NA, or 12-Step Treatment (2000) by Archie Brodsky, Charles Bufe, and Stanton Peele
  This book is a guide for the one million-plus Americans per year who face coerced religious indoctrination in the guise of alcohol or drug treatment. It outlines legal strategies and existing court decisions and shows how useless and sometimes harmful 12-step treatment can be. It also contains a considerable amount of material on the routine violation of standard medical ethics by addiction treatment providers, and examples of such violations.

• Alcohol and Pleasure: A Health Perspective (1999)
  There is no simple threshold between the experience of drinking and the pleasure it can bring on the one hand and the pain and suffering caused by alcohol abuse on the other. But if we are to understand the role of alcohol in society, then at the very least we need to acknowledge the pleasure as well as the pain. Alcohol and Pleasure aims to bring together existing knowledge on the role of pleasure in drinking and determine whether the concept is useful for scientific understanding and policy consideration.
  
  The book is divided into six parts.

  • Part I: Pleasure and Health surveys evidence that points to pleasure as an essential element of physical and mental health and discusses the resulting implications for public health policy.

  • Part II: Pleasure and Alcohol Cross-Culturally provides a series of case studies examining the impact of pleasure on the nature of and trends in drinking in both the developed and the developing world.

  • Part III: Alcohol and Medical, Psychological, and Social Health reviews the range of health benefits that are drawn from moderate consumption of alcohol and the extent to which these suggest room for positive public health recommendations on drinking.

  • Part IV: Drinking Expectations and Contexts explores the array of non-pharmacological factors that add to, modify, or direct human reactions to alcohol.

  • Part V: Pleasure and Alcohol Policy tackles evolving conceptions of health as found in the World Health Organization's Quality of Life project. Finally,

  • Part VI draws conclusions from the volume as a whole and the conference on which it is based.
    
    The contributors to this volume include experts from the fields of public health, clinical medicine, anthropology, and psychology, as well as from the beverage alcohol industry. As a result, the perspectives they provide on the issue of alcohol and pleasure within the context of health are equally diverse. Alcohol and Pleasure represents a starting point for future dialogue on the role alcohol may play in a pleasurable, healthy lifestyle.

• Diseasing of America: How We Allowed Recovery Zealots and the Treatment Industry to Convince Us We Are Out of Control (1991, 1999)
  There is absolutely no proven scientific evidence supporting the misconception that substance abuse and other addictions are genetically acquired diseases. Shocked? Diseasing of America is a powerful and controversial rebuttal to the "addiction as disease model" that many vested interests-including doctors, counselors, psychologists, treatment centers, and twelve-step programs that specialize in addiction treatment-don't want you to read.

• The Meaning of Addiction: An Unconventional View  (1998)
  This compelling and controversial book challenges the widely accepted belief that alcohol and drug addiction have a genetic or biological basis. The so-called disease theory suggests that a substance or activity can cause the addict to lose control of his behavior. Stanton Peele demonstrates how this notion fails to make sense of scientific observations.
  
  Analyzing studies of drug and cigarette addiction, alcoholism, obesity, and other potential compulsions such as running and sex, Peele reveals the surprising frequency of self-cure as part of the evidence. The author finds that compulsive habits and dependency are a way of coping that individuals can reverse as their life circumstances change. This brilliantly argued book is sure to provoke discussion and stimulate new approaches to treatment.

• Truth About Addiction and Recovery (1992)

• Visions of Addiction: Major Contemporary Perspectives on Addiction and Alcholism (1988)

• Don't panic!: A Parent's Guide to Understanding and Preventing Alcohol and Drug Abuse (1983)

• Science of Experience (1983)

• How Much Is Too Much? (1981)

• Addiction Experience (1980)

• Addiction Is a Social Disease (1977)

• Love and Addiction (1975) by Stanton Peele with Archie Brodsky