Why is it that even amidst affluence and power, our culture is plagued by a variety of addictions? In this pioneering work, Bruce Wilshire searches for answers by giving serious attention to our genetic legacy from our hunter-gatherer ancestors as well as to the unique ways we adapt to our environment through the practice of science and the creation of art and cities. The work considers remedies for specific addictions_including drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling_suggesting that wilderness exploration, in the arts, myths, and ceremonies, can help us rediscover what it means to be human creatures. Bringing together the insights of philosophy, religion, cultural anthropology, behavioral biology, and the vast socio-medical literature on addiction, Wilshire ingeniously explores the limits of our adaptive capacity and the costs of depleting the natural regenerative functions of the body.

"Footnotes provide interesting information and lead the reader to the other source." - CHOICE, January 1999, Vol. 36 N0.5

"Literate and spiritually refreshing." - The Journal Of Addiction and Mental Health

"The book is an interesting indicator of current trends in fin-de-siecle America." - Addiction

"An impassioned plea for rediscovering our primal need for ecstatic involvement in the world. . . will speak to a wide audience." - Publishers Weekly

"Startling! Writing with passion and honesty, Wilshire shows that in addiction we participate in degenerative vicious circles that substitute for the regenerative cycles of nature." - Parabola

"[Wilshire]'s approac is intuitive and imaginative, mixing medical and scientific research with the insights of Thoreau, James, Dewey, Muir, ad St. Paul, and he is most persuasive when describing the alienating disaffections of dualism, patriarchy, and a scientism whhich places inordinate faith in technology." - Theological Studies

"A worthwhile contribution to the study of addiction, which rarely receives such sustained, serious reflection by professional philosophers. . . . Wilshire makes a significant contribution not only to the study of addiction but also to the remedying of the ever-widening cultural-societal situation in which modern addictions proliferate." - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Wild Hunger is an incredibly rich book. . . . This is a book that is sure to interest philosophers, especially American philosophers and phenomenologists, but also medical doctors, anthropologists, feminists, psychologists, addiction counselors, addicts, relatives of addicts, and, more generally, anyone who is concerned with the ominous signs that our present way of inhabiting the world is interfering with our opportunity to realize our most primal needs." - Journal of Speculative Philosophy