Ex-Convict/Addict Earns PhD and Publishes Book

Our drug abusing/addicted sons, brothers, husbands, friends and co-workers consistently lie, cheat, and steal, and there seems little chance for permanent, intrinsic change. Medical doctors, mental health professionals, the criminal justice system, social scientists, and the clergy offer plenty of advice about how to deal with drug addicts, but even the best advice seldom changes the emotional truth. Most family members of drug addicts live with strong feelings of resentment, hate, and frustration--yet love and hope persist. They are pulled in two opposing directions: bitter resentment and love. Over time this ambivalence is exhausting. Since we can't fix them, should we simply give up and ban them from our lives?

The answer is yes and no. Yes, in that Scumbag Sewer Rats provides solace and meaning for the millions of individuals whose lives have been affected by criminalized drug addicts. And no, in that the book discourages trusting them in any way. Readers will learn that once substance abuse has passed the experimental stage and becomes a lifestyle, addicts are predisposed to personifying two archetypes, the puer aeternus and the trickster. Seeing this population through the perspective of archetypal psychology fosters the capacity to imagine, empathize, and relate to their stories, thereby rendering a raw, chilling and psychologically acute understanding of them.

The author reveals his personal experiences such as his evolution into substance abuse and jail systems, writing his own medical prescriptions and defrauding the public in service stations. Many of these experiences are juxtaposed with mythological figures and myths and quotes by other authors to elucidate the sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and sometimes desperate predicaments in which they find themselves. Many of these experiences demonstrate a creative intelligence that will impress upon the reader of their potential. The experience of other criminalized addicts, articulating their expertise in criminal activity, is also explored, as well as excerpts written by inmates who offer their experiences in and out of the prison environment. If our educational, rehabilitational, and judicial systems knew about puer and trickster mechanisms, would they be able to serve this population better? What if they were aware of their own prejudicial inclinations toward viewing criminalized addicts as scumbag sewer rats? Could an archetypal understanding encourage empathy instead of disgust, hope instead of despair, or at least the patience for them to find their way to a more productive lifestyle?

Dr. Smethers also contends that criminalized drug addicts are not sick--criminal behavior is not an illness, nor is chemical dependency. Also, that chemical dependency is a misdirected path to spirituality, and that recovery can be achieved through multiple therapeutic approaches and the use of various psychological aides. Interest for the families of addicts are suggested by the author on how to more effectively deal with their addicted loved ones using tactics gleaned from the addicts themselves. Whereas there is no shortage of books about drug addicts or criminals, not one of them accomplishes what Scumbag Sewer Rats does. It is a unique approach to the topic, and the sooner the reading public become more familiar with this marginalized sector of humanity, the sooner they can find some consolation in dealing with them as they are, or better yet--a reassurance that their lives can become productive and meaningful if they pursue recovery. Addiction in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions. As a result, there is a huge potential audience for Scumbag Sewer Rats which includes addicts seeking self-understanding, the friends and families affected by their behavior who also seek understanding, and the professional community who work with addicts such as therapists, counselors, clergy, law enforcement officers and others in the criminal justice system. Specific audience' for the book includes: Psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and psychoanalysts who number in the hundreds of thousands throughout the United States (There are over 20,000 Marriage and Family Therapists in California alone). A large proportion deal with addiction and its effect in their practices.

The therapeutic community increases exponentially with drug and alcohol counselors who deal with the addicted population every day--most of whom have criminal records. Clergy, who are not exempt to addiction themselves, and who serve addicted people within their ministries. They often replace professional therapists, and they are often therapists themselves. Furthermore, they are geographically ubiquitous, and all denominations recognize the problem. Professionals in the criminal justice system, law enforcement, probation and parole, and correctional officers who are confronted with criminalization and substance abuse every day. Since substance abuse is a problem within these communities, their interests are twofold--addiction within their own professions and the addicted population they deal with professionally. The United States currently has the largest documented prison population in the world, both in absolute and proportional terms.

Roughly 2.03 million people are behind bars, or 701 inmates per 100,000 populations. The readership, of course, isn't limited to the above communities. The public is so profoundly affected by criminalized drug addicts that they too will find Scumbag Sewer Rats enlightening, not to mention informative, useful, and entertaining.

Dr. Smethers' qualifications to write this book comes as much from a history of more than 30 years of drug and alcohol addiction as it does from having earned a Ph.D. in depth psychology. To be sure, his doctoral dissertation as a research study has provided him with technical ability, formal education, and a foundation for this enterprise. However, his history of addiction and incarceration offers the reader a more down-to-earth readability, giving it a wider readership potential. Between 1960 and 1991 when John was released from parole, there was scarcely a time when he wasn't either on probation or parole, doing time, community service, paying fines, pending court, or suffering the loss of his driver license. He's been arrested approximately 40 times for various misdemeanor and felony offenses--very few of which were unrelated in some way to drinking and drug use. There weren't many of those arrests that he was not convicted of, including six DUI charges. John served five county jail sentences and eventually a three-year sentence in state prison.

homepage http://www.scumbagsewerrats.com