Book excerpt: "The book has two primary goals. The first is to challenge and strengthen the reader's understanding of addiction by exploring how others in the field have come to know it. We hope that this will enable the reader to create a clear and logically consistent perspective on addiction. The second goal is to show the reader how theory and research are important to both the prevention and the treatment of substance abuse. This information should provide the reader with an array of strategies for addressing substance abuse problems and help make him or her an effective practitioner"--