Psychology. What a loaded word! To some people, the word draws up images of great progress in the understanding of human behavior and cognition about which the ancients could never dream or of which they could never conceive. To others, ‘psychology’ is tantamount to idolatry and synonymous with ‘secular.’ Similarly, when people hear the word counseling, they may imagine anything from the psychoanalytic couch, to a group intervention with a drug addict, to an awkward conversation with a well-meaning pastor or mentor. What is psychology? Is it biblical? Are there many definitions of the term? Should biblical counseling draw upon the insights of contemporary psychological studies? 

Substance Use Disorder, the technical name for addictions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association, lends itself to presenting the view that addiction is a disease much in the same way that a bladder infection is. Of course, it is acknowledged that beliefs and emotions play a larger role in addictive behavior than they do in a bladder infection; however, the predominant way of framing addictions is as a disease with some special caveats regarding the cognitive and the affective. Those with substance use disorder (SUD) are viewed as victims and as those suffering from an illness.