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This is an absorbing book, a new and needed set of essays on behavioral addictions from a psychoanalytic or psychodynamic point of view. Taken on their own merits, these articles have many useful ideas to offer, both theoretically and clinically. But if you are looking for a cohesive formulation on what constitutes behavioral addictions, or on treatment of these addictions you will be mightily disappointed.
We begin with an essay by Lance Dodes in which he explains the roots of addiction as located in the sufferer's chronic experience of rage and helplessness. This represents an important breakthrough in psychoanalytic history, encouraging psychoanalysts to think about addiction in psychodynamic ways, rather than relegating addicts to the realm of untreatable pleasure seekers. While Dodes’ (2002) premise has had positive impact on the treatment of addicts, his focus on a single cause of addictive behavior seems a bit simplistic. Particularly with the recent contributions of neuropsychology, it would be helpful to add in those genetic, physiological, and neurological contributions both to the formation of addictive behavior and to its continuation. Nevertheless, he stands by the idea that addicts are treatable and that they are not simply at the mercy of the pleasure principle, which is a way that psychoanalysts have traditionally discount the feasibility of working with addicts. Indeed, in the concluding remarks by the editors of the book, they echo that dated position that “(G)iven their ego-syntonic and largely pleasurable nature, the individual's motivation for seeking help is weak and, as a result, the prognosis is guarded” (p. 152).
The book is divided into sections on six behavioral addictions: food, sex, gambling, shopping, internet and work. These chapters offer important insights about each respective behavioral addiction. I found the chapters on food, shopping and internet addiction to be the strongest. The importance of Khantzian's work runs through the boo