Raikhel's book is more than a story about the treatment of alcoholism. It is also a gripping analysis of the many cultural, institutional, political, and social transformations taking place in the postSoviet world, particularly in Putin's Russia. Governing Habits will appeal to a wide range of readers, from medical anthropologists, clinicians, to scholars of post-Soviet Russia, to students of institutions and organizational change, to those interested in therapies and treatments of substance abuse, addiction, and alcoholism.
Eugene Raikhel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. He is coeditor of Addiction Trajectories as well as founder and editor of Somatosphere, an online forum for medical anthropology.