Disease and Desire: Perspectives on Addiction from Ancient Greek Poetry, Philosophy, and Medicine

Abstract

This dissertation investigates addiction in the ancient Greco-Roman world, a phenomenon which I show not only existed in the ancient past, but was also conceptualized in unique ways. Based on a method that balances biological aspects of addiction with factors from the social and environmental context, I investigate how addiction was diagnosed, explained, and treated in the ancient world. I focus on cases and examples from Aristophanes’s Wasps, Plato’s Timaeus (as well as a few other texts), and Galen’s psychological writings. I lay out a previously unnoticed dialogue among these authors in relation to the topic of addiction, and reveal their various approaches to addiction as a problem (or not) of health, habit, and environment. Finally, I suggest that the alternative perspectives found in the ancient material might be used to think critically about unexamined assumptions and values surrounding the conceptualization and treatment of addiction today.