The Fix
is a fascinating 21st century investigation into addiction, which has of course been eternally part of the human condition.
What Damien Thompson so successfully charts however, is the argument that western contemporary culture has produced a society in which its participants are particularly susceptible to succumbing to their addictive impulses; as Thompson points out often, their continual search for and hanging on to things that materially replace people in our lives.
Our materialistic economic system has of course made it all the more possible for us to indulge in these impulses, and a culture that encourages us to celebrate who we are by what we wear, possess and achieve as economic actors within an individualistic, free-for-all capitalist economy produces addictions, splurges and a need for a fix from cupcakes as much as cocaine and alcohol.
I must admit I had approached this book with a bit of scepticism- I'd expected another relentless reiteration of the 12 step programme- but it is refreshingly far from that. Thompson has the guts and gumption to actually offer a much needed critique of that programme, developed of course by AA and picked up by hundreds of 'addiction' causes across the world. This is brave and much needed. Now don't get me wrong, AA and the wider twelve step programme is a vital, very effective system for dealing with substance abuse, that is beyond doubt. Even the simplistic criticism that the programme merely substitutes one addiction [to the programme] in place of the substance [notably alcohol or drugs] is pretty hollow, as it is clearly better for the person to be 'addicted' to a mental self-improvement programme than a corroding physical one.
The Twelve Step Programme does have it's limitations though and Thompson outlines them well. It need not necessarily suit everyone and it's 'one-size-fits-all' approach can be over-bearing and in many cases counter-productive. The reliance on an outside agency to 'save' you from your addiction has it uses, but again, may not be as effective in the long run as the 12 step hype may lead one to believe. In fact the 12 step programme can also be decidedly anti-social and too 'life-structure' dictating, a dark underside rarely mentioned. Thompson also points out one of my greatest reservations about the 12 Step programme too- the argument that if you don't get it, you are a still suffering and your incapabilities to do so are just a symptom of the mental debilitations of your addiction. I have never thought this circular logic was ever particularly useful and even a little sinister, and it's quite heartening to read a writer like Thompson, a recovering addict himself, so deftly explore his own reservations too in this area.
The bottom line that emerges from this book, is that essentially, addiction needs to be tackled from within ourselves. Of course it is a connection with the outside world and its influences that makes us addicted to something in some way at least at some time in our lives, but that addiction is always more of a result of a 'lack' in our lives, even as a retreat from that life, as we cling to our [largely technically pointless] iphone upgrade to the detriment of real relationships with the real people around us. In that way, addiction is as much a social as a 'spiritual' illness. But only we, as an individual person, can face up to our addiction, face it down, and deal with it in the long term. Of course group help can assist and is often vital, but at the end of the day, the will and continual strength is entirely up to us as that one, capable individual. The buck stops inside our own heads.
This is an extremely unfashionable viewpoint at the moment I know, in our largely hollow, 'group-hug' culture, but it is unfortunately an unpalatable truth, and this book goes some way to explain why. Give it a go.