[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by vesperae Thank you as well for your detailed response! “Whilst I have no more patience than you have with the ‘blame’ culture and the abdication of personal responsibility, I don’t think that this is used as an excuse for failure as widely as you suggest. Many smokers blame themselves for their inability to overcome an addiction which, as they recognise, they voluntarily created for themselves.” This person does not attempt to blame anyone but herself for her predicament. She explains how she has got past the physical withdrawal on many occasions and yet been unable to resist the urge to re-start.” But that isn’t necessarily the entire extent to which she responds to awareness of the Risks and Dangers of smoking, and it certainly doesn’t represent her thinking during the whole of her relationship with smoking leading up to consciously deciding that she wants to quit. v: ”No one ever lights up her first cigarette and takes a drag and inhales it without becoming immediately and permanently aware of the Risks and Dangers of smoking.” R: ”[…]I do disagree with your assertion […above…]. I would suggest rather that the first time smoker becomes immediately and permanently aware of the direct effects of smoking (such as those you describe) but I don’t see that as the same thing as ‘Risks and Dangers’. As I said before, that first drag may cause an unpleasant reaction but taken by itself it is neither risky nor dangerous.” And what has been accomplished once this happens? A domination of Will and Ego over self-preservation instincts, and a deliberate, premeditated desire to be able to repeatedly breathe something that her body has instinctively told her is toxic. I think that this transformation has profound implications for her psychological relationship with smoking. Doesn’t the “badness” of smoking go directly to violation of health Taboos? v: ”These sound like the socially declared rationalizations of many smokers of the age group that you are describing. But the question is, can they be taken at face value? Is this the whole of the story? Since she doesn’t want to quit, if challenged, she might feel the need to rationalize her behavior to herself and to others. When questioned about the seemingly illogical decision to continue to smoke, she will undoubtedly offer up whatever justifications she imagines will fend off a critical party who is questioning her, because she probably doesn’t want to discuss it any more than is required to take the immediate focus off of her and her smoking.” R: ”I would have thought that, if challenged, she wouldn’t offer up these justifications at all. She would be more likely to make some self-deprecatory remark and talk vaguely of intending to quit (even though in fact she has no such intention) in order, as you say, to take the focus off. My scenario was rather meant to suggest how she might justify her decision to herself.”
on April 20, 2007, 1:03 am, in reply to "Addiction and choice [1 of 2]"
Hi Richard, 
[…]
The point that I was attempting to make (but strayed a bit off of) is that I believe that there is often a tendency to oversimplify the reasons behind an inability to quit, and if all of the motivations for wanting to continue to smoke aren’t recognized and taken into account, the attempt to quit probably won’t succeed.
”I have seen many examples of this. From the web, have a look at some of the entries in this blog (selected at random; one of the first I came across): http://www.quit.org.nz/page/blog/blog.php?viewUser=&page=9
My hypothesis is that she hasn’t recognized and addressed all of the things standing between her desire to quit and the ability to quit.
”You suggest later in your reply to me that I may be mistaken in taking at face value what smokers say about their addiction. Why, in your view, did this woman find it so difficult to stay quit?”
Because she hasn’t recognized and addressed all of the things standing between her desire to quit and the ability to quit, she wouldn’t be able to communicate those things to others. I also think that the same could be said for most unsuccessful quitters.
”What evidence is there that it was anything other than a continuing psychological addiction to the cigarettes which she had used for a variety of purposes for years?”
But what comprises the psychological addiction? If she doesn’t recognize all of the psychological motivations to smoke, she won’t be able to address and overcome them.
”Where can we find any hint of a subconscious pleasure in the risk and danger of smoking?”
At the stage that she is at in her relationship with smoking – wanting to quit – she consciously recognizes that the threat to her health is something that she is actively concerned about, and logically decides that she wants to quit.
[…]
I think that the experience is profoundly memorable, because without it, there can be no yardstick with which to measure the sense of accomplishment that a new smoker gets once she can smoke a cigarette at will, and without outward signs of distress.
”I don’t believe that there will be many teenage girls who, when offered their first cigarette, think: “here goes, I’m going to be taking a risk now and for the rest of my life”.
I don’t believe that the thought is that conscious, or that literal. But I believe that it is a subtle, contextual, and persistent awareness on some level that begins with her first inhale, and blossoms into Sublime motivations even before the physiological addiction does.
”The biggest risk at this stage is getting busted for smoking.”
BUT WHY?!!!
[…]
My point is that what she says socially, and what she thinks privately, are probably different in the same way that there would certainly be differences between the way she would talk about sex publicly, and how she might think about sex privately. (Smoking really can have that sense of intimacy!) And I would further suggest that the same distinction is possible and likely between superficial conscious thoughts and deeper subconscious motivations. How often are we conflicted sexually? And why is that...? 
Continued in next reply…
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