Addiction as Entrenchment

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Dennis HackethalOP revised 12 months ago·#744· Collapse

My conjecture

Conjecture: addiction is the result of the entrenchment of a conflict between two or more preferences in a mind.

Picture a smoker who wants to give up smoking but also really enjoys smoking. Those preferences conflict.

If the conflict is entrenched, then both preferences get to live on indefinitely. The entrenchment will not let the smoker give up smoking. He will become a chain smoker.

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Dennis HackethalOP, 12 months ago·#751· Collapse

This doesn’t explain how to solve the entrenchment, ie cure the addiction.

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Dennis HackethalOP, 12 months ago·#752· Collapse

Working on it. My preliminary answer is that it’s case by case. It depends on the nature of the particular entrenchment and the preferences involved. A more overarching answer might involve Randian ideas around introspection and getting one’s reason and emotions in the proper order.

I’ll leave this marked as a criticism until I flesh these thoughts out more.