Premodern Addiction Discourse, Antiquity to Medieval

In this chapter I show that the same narrative patterns and figurative language which define modern Addiction Literature have their roots in premodern discursive and didactic writings, from Aristotle to Aquinas. Focusing mainly on Plato’s Republic (c. 375 BCE), Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (c. 335 BCE), Prudentius’ Psychomachia (late fourth century), Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (c. 524) and Aquinas’ Summa Theologiæ (c. 1272), I show that the same tropes and themes of modern Addiction Literature were present in premodern discussions of issues of appetite, habit and personal behavioural agency.