Lance M. Dodes is an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst best known for his theory that all addictions are psychological compulsions.[1][2][3]
Dodes received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1966, his D.M.S. from Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine in 1968, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1970. He is a training and supervising analyst emeritus of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, and a retired assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.[4]
Prior to Dodes' work, psychological theories about addiction separated them from other common psychological symptoms.[5][6][7][8][9] Dodes was first to characterize addictions as identical to the symptoms of compulsions,[10] a view that allows for understanding and treating addictions the same way as other compulsive symptoms. In his book The Heart of Addiction and peer-reviewed academic articles, Dodes argued that addiction is a symptom that reflects a need to reverse overwhelming feelings of helplessness.[11][12][13][14] His second book, Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction was honored as a Library Journal Best Book in its category.[15]
In The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry,[16] Dodes and his co-author reviewed 50 years of research and said that most people who have experienced Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) have not achieved long-term sobriety, and only five to eight percent of the people who go to one or more AA meetings achieve sobriety for longer than one year.[17] The book was featured in a NPR segment[18] and a New York Times review.[19] The 5–8% figure put forward by Dodes is controversial.[20]
In 2004 Dodes appeared in an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit![21] In 2015 he appeared as an expert in the film "The Business of Recovery".[22] He contributed an essay to the 2017 book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,[23] and had an opinion letter expressing concerns about Trump's emotional stability published by The New York Times.[24]
In 2001, Dodes was honored by the Division on Addictions at Harvard Medical School for “Distinguished Contribution” to the study and treatment of addictive behavior.[25]
In 2009, Dodes was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.[26]
Dodes was awarded an Author Prize by Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing for being in the top 5% of authors in 2011 and has remained in the top 5% through 2018 (the last year for which there are figures).[27]