Abstract
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes addiction as a genetic disease. Scholars have traced this controversial theory that addiction is a congenital disease (rather than simply the self-imposed consequence of an individual’s repeated bad choices) back to the writings of the renowned eighteenth-century physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), known as the “Father of Psychiatry.” However, the notion that addiction is a heritable disease had actually circulated in theological discourse for hundreds of years before Rush’s revolutionary psychiatric manuals. In this paper, I show, first, how the disease concept of addiction developed within Reformation-Era theology. Next, I demonstrate how Rush transposed the Reformed doctrine of addiction into psychiatric discourse. To conclude, I contend that Rush’s effort to identify physiological correlates of theological concepts exemplifies a broader effort among early nineteenth-century alienists to unify Calvinist theology with materialist science for the purpose of criminal justice reform.
Presenters
Lucas Mc CrackenHumanities and Social Change Postdoctoral Fellow, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Addiction, Free Will, Disease, Guilt, Secularization, Calvinism, Psychiatry
