In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

by Gabor Maté

“Don Giovanni,” Rae muses. “I don’t know that one. What’s it about?” “The Don Juan story. The obsessive womanizer. He’s this creative, charming, and energetic man. A daring adventurer, but a coward morally, who never finds peace within. His erotic passion is insatiable: no matter how often it’s consummated, it leaves him restless and dissatisfied. And his poetic talent and his drive for mastery only serve his relentless need to possess. It’s always about the next acquisition—he even keeps a notebook listing his amorous conquests. He has many, many opportunities for salvation, but he spurns them all. He torments others and sacrifices his own mortal soul. He scorns repentance, and in the end, he’s dragged down to Hell.” Rae glances at me with something like surprise—or is it a knowing smirk? “You described that so eloquently,” she says. “You brought the character alive. He’s obviously close to your heart.” True, he is—I’ve purchased four versions of this Mozart masterpiece in the last month, adding to the two already in my collection. I’ve never listened to any of them from start to finish. And I’ve been lying, withholding all this from Rae. Actually, I’m a small-time, far less glamorous Don Giovanni—I cheat with operas, not women.