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Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Frank Schalow

    1. Department of Philosophy, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, USA

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  • Applies the phenomenological method to show how technology transforms our culture of immediate gratification
  • Takes a philosophical approach to a personal and social crisis
  • Provides a unique inroad to understanding and appropriating Heidegger’s thinking
  • Is written for an interdisciplinary audience in psychiatry, phenomenological psychology, and health-care

Part of the book series: Contributions to Phenomenology (CTPH, volume 93)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
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  2. The Origins of the Addiction Crisis

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Seeking a Philosophical Perspective

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 3-23

    3. Everydayness and the “Norm” of Addictive Practices

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 25-45

    4. The Phenomenon of the Body and the “Hook” of Addiction

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 47-68

    5. Confronting the Forces of Self-Deception

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 69-87

    6. Technology and the Rise of the Artifice

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 89-113

  3. From Pathos to Healing: Transcendence and a New Life-Trajectory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115
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    2. From Theology to Therapy: A Genealogical Account

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 117-141

    3. In Search of a New Discourse: Resetting Priorities

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 143-159

    4. From Excess to Economy: The Elements of Recovery

      • Frank Schalow
      Pages 161-177

  4. Back Matter

    Pages 179-191
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Keywords

About this book

This book addresses an epidemic that has developed on a global scale, and, which under the heading of “addiction,” presents a new narrative about the travails of the human predicament. The book introduces phenomenological motifs, such as desire, embodiment, and temporality, to uncover the existential roots of addiction, and develops Martin Heidegger’s insights into technology to uncover the challenge of becoming a self within the impulsiveness and depersonalization of our digital age. 

By charting a new path of philosophical inquiry, the book allows a pervasive, cultural phenomenon, ordinarily reserved to psychology, to speak as a referendum about the danger which technology poses to us on a daily basis. In this regard, addiction ceases to be merely a clinical malady, and instead becomes a “signpost” to exposing a hidden danger posed by the assimilation of our culture within a technological framework.

Reviews

“Frank Schalow’s new book, Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction, offers an important contribution to the philosophical study of addiction. … Schalow succeeds in this work in knitting together a host of phenomenological themes around the topic of addiction … . Its successes make this book a considerable step in the phenomenological and existential analysis of addiction, and no doubt it will prove an important study for anyone interested in this topic.” (Peter Antich, Phenomenological Reviews, reviews.ophen.org, March, 2018)

“Frank Schalow’s Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence enhances and enlarges our understanding of the problem of addiction as a problem of existence, aproblem in living, a problem in “how to be.”… This courageous work will prove to be an innovative addition to the literature on addiction. It will serve as an invaluable resource for those who work in the field of addiction—especially for those who use experience-near therapeutic approaches that are incipiently phenomenological.” (Mufid James Hannush, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, Vol. 49, 2018)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, USA

    Frank Schalow

About the author

Frank Schalow is Professor of Philosophy and University Research Professor at the University of New Orleans. He is the author of Heidegger and the Quest for the Sacred (Springer, 2001), and editor of Heidegger, Translation, and the Task of Thinking:  Essays in Honor of Parvis Emad (Springer, 2011).  Frank Schalow serves as co-editor of the international journal Heidegger Studies; in April, 2015, he received the “Excellence in Research Award” by the University Honors Program of the University of New Orleans.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Toward a Phenomenology of Addiction: Embodiment, Technology, Transcendence

  • Authors: Frank Schalow

  • Series Title: Contributions to Phenomenology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66942-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-66941-0Published: 23 October 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-88350-2Published: 18 May 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-66942-7Published: 11 October 2017

  • Series ISSN: 0923-9545

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1915

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 191

  • Topics: Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Technology

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