Ook beschikbaar in het: Dutch

Why do people use addictive substances when they know it’s bad for them? Up until recently, many people assumed that people exhibiting addictive behavior weighed the pros and cons, making addictive behavior a rational decision. But addiction should really be referred to as irrational behavior. A new vision on addiction poses that the development of an addiction is not just determined by rational processes; automatic and subconscious processes are at least equally important.

Although the idea that addiction is related to subconscious processes has been thrown around for some time, it wasn’t until recently that these processes can be measured as well. In Slaaf van het Onbewuste (Slave to the subconscious), Reinout Wiers presents a new, coherent vision regarding the development of addictive behavior, both from psychological and neurobiological perspectives.