Foreword / Peter Levine

Hungry ghosts: The realm of addiction

Part I: Hellbound train

The only home he's ever had

The lethal hold of drugs

The keys of paradise: Addiction as a flight from distress

You wouldn't believe my life story

Angela's grandfather

Pregnancy journal

Beethoven's birth room

There's got to be some light

Part II: Physician, heal thyself

Takes one to know one

Twelve-step journal: April 5, 2006

Part III: A different state of the brain

What is addiction?

From Vietnam to "Rat Park": Do drugs cause addiction?

A different state of the brain

Through a needle, a warm, soft hug

Cocaine, dopamine, and candy bars: The incentive system in addiction

Like a child not released

Part IV: How the addicted brain develops

Their brains never had a chance

Trauma, stress, and the biology of addiction

It's not in the genes

Part V: The addiction process and the addictive personality

"A void I'll do anything to avoid"

Too much time on external things: The addiction-prone personality

Poor substitutes for love: Behavioral addictions and their origins

Part VI: Imagining humane reality: Beyond the war on drugs

The social roots of addiction

Know thine enemy

"Ignorant fanaticism": The failed war on drugs

Freedom of choice and the choice of freedom

- Toward an enlightened social policy on drugs

Reducing harm

Part VII: The ecology of healing

The power of compassionate curiousity

The internal climate

The four steps, plus one

Sobriety and the external milieu

A word to families, friends, and caregivers

There is nothing lost: Addiction and the spiritual quest

Appendix I: Fallacies of adoption and twin studies

Appendix II: A close link: Attention deficit disorder and addictions

Appendix III: The prevention of addiction

Appendix IV: The twelve steps.