2007_05_01_archive

Drugs, Alcohol and Society with Schaler at American University, May 21 to

June 28, 2007

Drugs, Alcohol and Society, Summer 2007

JLS-303-B01

American University

Instructor: Jeffrey Schaler

May 21, 2007 to June 28, 2007

Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 5:30pm to 8:40pm.

This is an intense, high-power course focused on everything you

thought was true about addiction (but were afraid to ask). Study the

synthetic and analytic truth about addiction. You'll learn all kinds

of intellectual tools to win arguments with adversaries and "wow" your

friends. Your life will change as a result of taking this course.

This is also an opportunity to study the ideas of Thomas Szasz, Jeff

Schaler, and others (inaccurately labeled as "anti-psychiatrists")

concerning the myth and meaning of addiction; the various explanations

offered for addiction including theological, biological,

psychological, and sociocultural explanations; and the various

consequences of those explanations in diverse policy arenas including

legal policy (First Amendment rights and court-ordered attendance in

Alcoholics Anonymous and other forms of "treatment") as well as

general consequences for liberty and responsibility; clinical policy

(including the meaning of psychotherapy, different types of

psychotherapy, similarities between psychotherapy and religion; why

treatment doesn't work, etcetera); public policy (including various

forms of formal social control, paternalism, how the state attempts to

protect people from themselves in the name of public health and

medicine; the consequences of drug prohibition, problems facing

doctors in terms of prescribing opiates for pain control, etcetera);

and various elements of social policy (the difference between formal

and informal social control; conformity, compliance, and obedience to

authority, etcetera.

For more information about summer courses with Professor Schaler,

click HERE.

See past syllabi and evaluations by students of Schaler's teaching by

clicking HERE.

Note: The Distance Education (DE) course with Schaler entitled

"Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law" (JLS-596.N0XL) beginning May 14,

2007, is now full. If you registered for that course, you'll be sent

the syllabus by email shortly. Blackboard will be enabled in the next