Louise Foxcroft
Ashgate
Hardback
208
2007
This book uncovers the original influences that shaped the creation and the various interpretations of addiction as a disease and of addiction to opiates in particular. It delves into the treatments regimes and prejudices that surrounded the condition a newly emerging pathological entity and a form of 'moral insanity' during the nineteenth century. Letters diaries and newspapers are drawn upon to detail personal struggles with addiction and the trials of those who cared and despaired.