Stanton Peele, writing for Filter:
The term—and concept of—“addiction” is regularly frowned upon or even attacked by people in our field. But it won’t disappear, nor should it.
There are four groups or schools of thought that de-emphasize or disparage “addiction.” And their reasons for doing so all have value.
But for me, their arguments point us not to the abandonment of the term, but to its reconception in order to make it accurate and useful.
Before I elaborate, I’ll summarize these “anti-addiction” groups and their positions.
Peele goes on to briefly explain why psychiatrists, epidemiologists, critics of an expanded view of addiction, and harm reductionists often argue against the idea of addiction. Following the introduction is his stance on addiction, which I find to be quite compelling. In fact, this is one of the best pieces of writing on the topic that I’ve ever come across.
I highly suggest you give it a read too.