A HOMEOSTATIC MODEL

A HOMEOSTATIC MODEL

While the aforementioned observations and studies may seem in-teresting and cogent, the need became apparent to us for them to be more adequately synthesized within a comprehensive model that also took into account repetitive family patterns and systemic thinking. Up to that point, of course, several attempts had been made to conceptualize drug abuse as a family phenomenon. For example, Alexander and Dibb2 viewed addiction as stabilizing the family, while Noone and Reddir regarded the family as -stuck- at a stage in the developmental life cycle as a result of unresolved family loyalties and grief.'9 Reillyug saw the issues of loss, mourning, and separation anxiety in the family as perpetuating the pattern of drug abuse. However, these conceptualizations tended to be linear in their view of causality, that is, to take the form -A leads to B,- or -A and B lead to C.- This contrasts with a nonlinear or -recursive-1' notion of -A leads to B, B leads to C, and C leads back to A.- In fact, the majority of theoreticians in this area, with the exception of Huberty,'° regarded the addiction process in linear causal terms, rather than involving a complex set of feedback mechanisms within a repetitive cycle. For example, one can view a parent or even the whole family as -causing-the addiction and still be tied to a linear model. In the remainder of this chapter, the homeostatic aspects of addiction receive particular emphasis, and the previously described elements are incorporated as to their respective roles in the maintenance of behavior cycles.

The model presented here includes some concepts and ways of thinking about drug abuse-addiction and about people and their behavior that have not been a primary part of the epistemology in the drug-abuse field. In some ways they are discontinuous with traditional notions. They stem from a theoretical tradition extending at least from the earlier works on family homeostasis and triadic systems of Jackson''," and Haley.6",61 For those to whom they are unfamiliar, we ask that these ideas be approached with an open mind and, perhaps, with a sense of exploration.