Addiction & Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions - Gerald G. May, M.D.
“To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.” – Gerald May, Addiction & Grace, p. 11. According to psychiatrist Gerald May, all of us are addicts. May defines addiction as “a state of compulsion, obsession, or preoccupation that enslaves a person’s will and desire” (14). Addiction is the flip-side of repression: “While repression stifles desire, addiction attaches desire, bonds and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things, or people. These objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions; they come to rule our lives” (3). While addictions to alcohol and drugs are obvious and tragic, everything – ideas, work, relationships, power, moods, fantasies, etc. – holds the potential to become an object of addiction. For this reason, May argues that “No addiction is good; no attachment is beneficial. To be sure, some are more destructive than others… [but they all have this in common, they] impede human freedom and diminish the human spirit” (39). Unable to think rightly about our addictions (because of "mind tricks") or will our way out of addictions (because of a divided will), the first step to healing is to admit one’s addictions, and even more, see our addictions as “doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives” (31). For my extended analysis of this soul-searching book, click HERE.