What Is Addiction?
The Third Mind AND World Conference
May 4 – 6, 2007
University of Alabama at Birmingham
co-sponsored by the University of
KwaZulu-Natal and the National
Centre for the Study of Gambling,
South Africa
This multidisciplinary
conference, incorporating psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, behavioral
economics and philosophy, will focus on fundamental questions about the nature
of addiction. What are the properties shared by all addictions? Are they
primarily behavioral, or will neuroscience restrict the concept by discovering
a common biological core of 'genuine' addictions? Are some kinds of addiction
'real' and others merely addictions by analogy? What are the main clinical implications of the latest
addiction research? Do we stand on the edge of neuropharmacological
breakthroughs in addiction treatment? If so, does this apply to all behavioral syndromes we refer to as
addictions? If addictions can be
effectively controlled, will this provide people addicted to legal substances
and behavior with a reason to aim at moderate indulgence of their target of
addiction instead of abstinence? A second set of questions will focus on the
role (or lack of one) for 'willpower' or an equivalent construct in resisting
the pull of behavior that has been associated with addiction. Is the idea that
`strength of will', on some
interpretation, is needed to avoid addiction and relapse an illusion, or can it
be given scientific foundations? If the latter,
Papers will explore these questions from
both empirical and conceptual angles.
Plenary Speakers:
George Ainslie, Warren Bickel, Peter Collins, Doug Husak, James MacKillop,
Nancy Petry, Marc Potenza, Howard Rachlin, A. David Redish, Timothy Schroeder, John Monterosso, Louis Charland, David Spurrett, and Ben Murrell.
Organizing Committee: Peter Collins, Harold Kincaid, Greg Pence,
Don Ross, David Spurrett, and Rudy
Vuchinich.
Go to www.uab.edu/ethicscenter for further information
or contact:
Harold Kincaid: kincaid@uab.edu or
Don Ross: don.ross@uct.ac.za
Conference program will be available from early February, 2007.