Moral Model Vs Medical Model

Per Stephen Morse addictions can be broken down into two models. The medical model and the moral model, or moral failure. In general, the medical model of addiction puts forth that the cause of addiction has a biological, neurological, genetic or environmental cause, and that the resulting behaviors are a symptom of the disease, while the moral model ascribes that those behaviors are due to a moral failure. “Although no uncontroversial definition of addiction exists and “addiction” and “addict” are not formal diagnostic terms, I shall use both for ease of exposition. Morse defines addiction phenomenologically – as do many researchers – “as persistently arising feelings of intense cravings to consume substances and attempting to seek and use