The Urge:
Our History of Addiction
Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The Boston Globe
“The best-written and most incisive book I’ve read on the history of addiction…The Urge is a propulsive tour de force that is as healing as it is enjoyable to read.”
—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick
“An insightful, thought-provoking, and beautifully written book that stands to revolutionize our understanding of one of medicine’s—and society’s—most challenging problems.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies
“This is a brilliant, fascinating, important book. Combining riveting cultural history and cutting-edge neuroscience with his own searing experiences with (and recovery from) substance abuse, Carl Erik Fisher has produced a work that deserves a place alongside volumes by fellow physician-writers Oliver Sacks, Kay Redfield Jamison, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Abraham Verghese. Full of insight and wisdom, this is a profound meditation on the nature of addiction and what it means to be human.”
—Scott Stossel, author of My Age of Anxiety
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Carl Erik Fisher
Carl Erik Fisher is an addiction physician, bioethicist, and person in recovery. He is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. He also maintains a private psychiatry practice focused on complementary and integrative approaches to addiction and recovery. He is the author of the nonfiction book The Urge: Our History of Addiction, published by Penguin Press in January 2022 and named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and The New Yorker. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American MIND, and elsewhere.
Photo by Beowulf Sheehan