- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The artist’s work is pro-recovery precisely because it is anti-rehab. It musically decries the well-kept deception that nonetheless has always been transparent: “rehab”, denoting traditional confrontational, shaming, and 12-step approaches to treatment of substance use disorders, does not work. Never has. It does provide normalized early death by nicotine along with comforting denial and avoidance of underlying dysphoria driving addictive behaviors, hidden behind the façade of “clean and sober”. I get a sense of the futility of traditional rehab from the lyrics of Ms. Winehouse, not glorification of addiction:
I'd rather be at home with ray
I ain't got seventy days
Cause there's nothing
There's nothing you can teach me
That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway
I didn't get a lot in class
But I know it don't come in a shot glass
I don't ever wanna drink again
I just ooh I just need a friend
I'm not gonna spend ten weeks
have everyone think I'm on the mend
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no'
