On Addiction, and its Mastery

 Addiction is a mental loop. It tends to be associated with dysfunction. While it is "bad" if the object is culturally offensive such as alcohol, it is "good" if the object is culturally acceptable. For example, it is deemed OK to be addicted to people, in fact people who shun such addictions are regarded as dysfunctional. We use concepts like love, and loyalty, to discuss such addictions.

I did a study of love when I was in college. I wanted to know how flexible my emotions were, so as a matter of experimentation, I tried to fall in love with an apple. I figured it was possible, and thereafter regarded love as something that can be switched on or off, with training. Many people have found this story and the ensuing behaviour offensive, but that is OK I guess.

More recently, I analysed the concept of love among humans into

• friendship
• sex
• contracts
• addiction

I think, my study in college should be rightly rephrased as a study of addiction. If you learn to turn the behaviour of addiction on and off at will, the addition of this feature to your mental life can be somewhat liberating.