Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery [Paperback]

Albert LaChance (Author), Thomas Berry (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2006

Addiction, argues Albert LaChance in this insightful book, affects more than the individual who suffers from it. Cultural Addiction shows how contemporary lifestyles have become addictive, consuming the planet's resources—soil, air, water—in a destructive way that comprises earth's life systems and endangers the survival of both humankind and other species. This book presents a 12-step program for recovery from these dangerous lifestyles. Identifying such traits as egocentricity, materialism, overeating and drinking, and apathy as products of addiction, the author draws on the world's spiritual traditions—Hinduism, Buddhism, shamanism, Christianity, and others—to show individuals and communities how to work together to overcome these problems. The 12-step Greenspirit program empowers people to change the way they live in their environment. This “cultural therapy” in turn creates a renewed culture dedicated to protecting—and respecting—the planet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"LaChance offers us a deep spiritual analysis of the human roots of the present ecological crisis facing the world, through the lens of addiction, pathology, and denialism. But rather than simply describing the situation, he offers us a practical spiritual framework to respond to the crisis through adaptation of the 12-step program."
- The Reverend Adrian Robbins-Col, MA, rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church, Peterborough, Diocese of New Hampshire

About the Author

Albert J. LaChance, Ph.D., LADC, CAS, DAPA, is a certified addiction specialist and a licensed addictions counselor who has treated individuals, families, and groups since 1991.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; annotated edition edition (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556436149
• ISBN-13: 978-1556436147
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An Experience of Transformation, December 14, 2010

By 

octoberlove1002 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery (Paperback)

What makes this book unique is that it is not meant to be simply read, but rather experienced. Albert LaChance weaves together so many disciplines in this stunningly beautiful book- informed by the work of Thomas Berry, it combines ecology, cosmology, and psychology elegantly enriched by the deep spirituality of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous whose wisdom has helped millions recover from addiction. The truth is, this is not a book for those who are unwilling to recognize and feel the genuine pain of the Earth as she struggles to accommodate our cultural greed and the inability on the part of the human to live within our "niche" like other species are able to do. However, if one already feels this pain or is willing to face it, reading and working this book, especially in a group context as I have done and as the book suggests, will offer the individual a poignant experience of transformation at the core and a new vision of our role in helping to heal our distorted relationship with the Earth. As a professor, I have also used many excerpts from this book to inform my students of their place in the whole Earth story. A simply beautiful book!

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yikes., November 26, 2009

By 

A. Sondgeroth (Owatonna, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cultural Addiction: The Greenspirit Guide to Recovery (Paperback)

This is one of the WORST books I have ever read and I read A LOT. To start with, it wasn't at all what I thought it was, I could have lived with that BUT this was just bad.

This guy has an agenda and crazy beliefs, put them together and Voila! you have this book. If you aren't a WAAAYYYY "out there" new-age type with a radical left view you'll probably have a hard time stomaching this book. I read many books by people who have political and religious views that I disagree with or might even think are a little kooky but this book...well, my title says it all. Yikes.

I bought this used on Amazon. I feel like I was cheated out of my $1.99. I usually donate the books I don't need to our local library, this one is going to the recycle bin.