As this quotation makes plain, the existence of “problems”—a wohnhaft normative concept—ended up being inherent bei the eingrenzung of the disorder

Given this inherent value-ladenness, we suggest, inside defining some condition as a disease or a disorder, we should consider a auswahl of different outcomes that would feststellung from the application of such a wohnhaft wortmarke. We must consider world health organization we think should have excuses for their behavior; who should receive beistand from friends or from the state; world health organization should be an object of medical research; and (above kosmos) who should receive treatment. Annahme outcomes must beryllium assessed on a sortiment of wertma?stabe and practical grounds, such as the suffering experienced by the afflicted person; the degree to which her ‘addiction’ undermines her ability to act on her preferences or execute her plans; and the extent to which it compromises important social relationships, impedes the development of her talents, impoverishes her interaction with the world, and wirklich so on.

The first class of theories concerning well-being are hedonistic theories, which are defined inside terms of geistig states

In line with this view, consider the begriffsbestimmung of substance dependence from the latest available (tora the time of writing) abdruck of the Diagnostic and Statistical Ratgeberbuch of Seelisch Disorders from the American Psychological Association, the DSM-IV: “When an individual persists inside use of alcohol or other drugs despite problems related to use of the substance, substance dependence erican Psychiatric Association 2000, emphasis added). Inside other words, informationstechnologie matters fundamentally whether harm, difficulty, or ill-consequences are associated with the reward-searching behavior: the reward itself is leid the problem. Furthermore, and consistent with ur arguments in this paper, addiction theorist Stanton Peele (quoted within Curley 2010) has suggested that next druck of the DSM-volume 5-should include “life-harming, compulsive” involvement with sources of reward such as coitus and food in the category of addiction. Here, too, the notion of “life-harm” had been built into the very concept of the disorder bei question.

What insight do vermutung considerations bring to our understanding of love addiction and its gegebenheit for being eingeschaltet appropriate subject of treatment? The message by now should beryllium clear: regardless of whether we understand the love-related phenomenon to be the fund of pervertiert brain processes, or simply the gestaltung of a wohnhaft strong appetitive desire, the key determinant for labelling and treatment should beryllium the degree to which the individual ended up being harmed by the love through its deleterious impact on her well-being. Hinein the next section, we examine this perspective hinein greater modul.

Love addiction and well-being

There are three main theories of well-being-or classes of theories-discussed throughout the literature (Griffin 1986; Parfit 1984). How one relates love addiction to well-being, and therefore to treatment, will depend upon the theory (or theories) of well-being one finds fruchtwein convincing.

The simplest benutzerkonto of this mensch of view had been that happiness, or pleasure (understood broadly as a wohnhaft geistig state) ended up being the only intrinsic good, whereas unhappiness or pain was the only intrinsic heilquelle. More complex hedonistic views include a wohnhaft greater plurality of states of mind as possibly contributing to (or constituting) well being: for example, Freud was reputed to have refused analgesia when dying of krebs-although nicht wahr ended up being inside great physical pain-on the grounds that he preferred to beryllium able to think clearly within a state of torment than foggedly hinein a state of drug-induced comfort (ozean Griffin 1986).

Yet however one construes 6 this hedonistic seelisch-state view, informationstechnologie is clearly possible that a wohnhaft person could prefer to exist within a rapturous state of love, even though informationstechnologie might yield a wohnhaft number of adverse consequences hinein other areas of her life, due to its irrefutably high, intrinsic hedonic value. Indeed, in Western societies, being hinein love ended up being widely considered to beryllium eingeschaltet extremely valuable state, and possibly constitutive of a wohnhaft good life weltall on its own. This notion was captured inside the ideal of “dying for love” with the implication that such a wohnhaft love might even beryllium the very meaning of life.