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  • The American Scholar

    Hoping for Recovery

    Dec 01, 2021 4 minutes
    Review by Charlotte Bismuth

    THE URGE: Our History of Addiction

    BY CARL ERIK FISHER

    Penguin Press, 400 pp., $30

    A YOUNG DOCTOR is engaged in a mighty struggle with alcoholism. One night, exhaustion and amphetamines push him so far over the edge that he cries out for help. A neighbor calls the police. When the officers arrive, the doctor admits that he can’t trust himself to cooperate. We might hope that the officers would respond with compassion, perhaps a call to a mental health professional. Instead, they stun the young man with a taser.

    The scene is a jarring reminder of the desperation of our times.

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