Habits that Handicap

A pioneering account of addiction from the man who helped shape American drug policy. Charles B. Towns, founder of the prestigious Towns Hospital where the wealthy dried out, wrote this book to expose the physiological and psychological chains binding alcoholics and drug addicts. Based on decades of clinical observation and personal struggle (Towns himself battled addiction before recovering), it argues that these habits are not moral failures but diseases requiring medical understanding. The book offers a stark, compassionate portrait of addiction's grip on the human will, drawing from case studies that reveal how dependency hijacks personality and destroys lives. Though written in the early 20th century, its core insight remains radical: that addiction deserves treatment rather than punishment. For readers interested in the history of medicine, the evolution of addiction science, or the human cost of substance dependence, this book provides an unflinching first draft of conversations we still struggle to have intelligently.