Addictive personalities, concept

There is some professional disagreement over the concept of an "addictive personality" (a constellation of personality traits that may predispose people to become addicted) and, if valid, over whether these traits are cause or consequence of the problem. Without entering this debate, it seems that young people who bring into counseling harmful involvement with substances often present some of the following receptive traits. 

Nor does the conception of addiction as acquired appetite imply that this condition is necessarily harmful, all things considered. Certain addictions can be regulated without interference with a person s physical or mental health or with productive social relations.27 Opiate dependency can be a reasonable price to pay for control of acute or chronic... 

Over the past few decades, alternative and complementary physicians have stressed the concept of food sensitivity or food intolerance, in which an otherwise healthy person has a poor reaction to certain types of foods, particularly wheat and other grains or dairy products. Food sensitivities are far subtler than true allergies, which tend to have far more obvious symptoms (diarrhea, hives, wheezing, and the like). Likewise, sensitivities are not the same as food addictions, in which eating a particular food gives short-term relief while producing symptoms later. 

In short, then, the concept of mental illness constitutes the general stigma class of Institutional Psychiatry, with specific psychiatric diagnostic categories or entities —such as addiction, psychopathic personality, or schizophrenia serving as members of this class. 

To be sure, psychopathic personality is a broad and treacherous term. But is it any more treacherous, or uncertain of definition, than terms like mental illness or addiction The notion of mental illness, central to the Durham rule and favored by Fortas, is assuredly more treacherous and vague than the concept of homosexuality. Similarly, the notion of addiction central to... 

---