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                    %ADDICTS' DISINTEGRATIVE IDEALS 870518

     Addicts  live in a world,  and often in a subculture,
which  is  characterized by disintegrative ideals.    They
sincerely  believe in and try to fulfill ideals which  are
characteristic  of  addicts:   management  of  impression,
getting  favorable  breaks,   selection  of   advantageous
circumstances,   having and using the right friends to the
best   possible  advantage,   concealment  of  weaknesses,
achievement  of  security,   being prepared for  conflict,
having supportive associates,  etc.

     The   addicts  have  their  own  peculiar  kinds   of
disintegrative ideals and believe  in them with sincerity.
Their  problem is  that their disintegrative  ideals  have
infected their thought processes just as any  bacteria  or
virus which causes a disease  of the body infects the body
of  the  ill  person.    Addicts  have  become  sick  with
disintegrative ideals and can not become well  until their
disintegrative  ideals  are cleared  out  of their thought
processes.

     We  are  often  dominated by the ideas  and  concepts
which  give  direction  to  our  thoughts,   feelings  and
attitudes.  We are confused if we think that such elements
of  our  being  are independent each other.    We  deceive
ourselves  if we think  or feel that we can feel or  think
without  thinking  or  feeling.    Such  confusion  is  an
indication of the disintegration which has taken place and
has separated our feeling from our thinking.   In the life
of  the  addict various disintegrative ideas,  conceptions
and  ideals  have infected the  processes  of thought  and
feeling in such ways as  to break  down the  communication
links between them,  communication which are essential  to
personal and communal integrity.

     Ideals  are  not  just  statements  put  into  words.
Ideals  are embodied in people's behavior as role  models.
Ideals are embodied in attitudes which people demonstrate.
Ideals  are embodied in activities which a culture  honors
with  respect  and  support.    The powerful people  in  a
community are the incarnations of  the  ideals which guide
the  community toward integration or disintegration.   The
ideals  of  an  addictive society lead the society  toward
disintegration by  infecting  its members and  undermining
much that is essential to personal and communal integrity.

     Addicts  give  evidence of their addictive  state  of
being  in various ways.   There are many focal substances,
activities, institutions,  and processes which are present
in  common manifestations of addicts disease.   The  focal
substances,   activities,  institutions and processes  are
merely symptoms of the disease; not the causes of it.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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