He maintained a concurrent law practice (including two stints as a pool attorney in the Morris County Public Defender's Office that offered vital insights into the workings of the American criminal justice system)[4] until 2012.
[8] According to Peele's experiential/environmental approach, addictions are negative patterns of behavior that result from an over-attachment people form to experiences generated from a range of involvements.
"[11]Peele maintains that, depending on the person, abstinence or moderation are valid approaches to treat excessive drinking.
In a Psychology Today article which compared the Life Process Program with the disease model,[12] he also argues against the theory proposed decades ago by modern physicians, mental health professionals, research scientists, etc.
[13] In Diseasing of America (1989), Peele contested Dr George Vaillant's pro-disease treatise The Natural History of Alcoholism.
In a co-authored book, Resisting 12 Step Coercion (2001), Peele outlined his case against court mandated attendance of twelve-step drug and alcohol treatment programs.
In a review of The Meaning of Addiction, addiction researcher Dr Griffith Edwards stated the following about Peele's work: "With these and other issues treated in cavalier fashion, with referencing highly incomplete and crucial work often ignored, one begins to feel that this is a book where polemic and scholarship have become inextricably and unhappily mixed.
In a constant flow of influential books, articles, and blogs over more than forty years, he has persuasively extended the critique of the disease theory of addiction beyond the scientific community to the general public.
When the disease theory is eventually replaced by a more rational and humane approach in the popular understanding of addiction, Stanton Peele will be first in line to receive the plaudits, and those of us who broadly share his view will owe him a profound debt of gratitude.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), and the Wine Institute provided unrestricted grants for research used in the journal article Exploring Psychological Benefits Associated with Moderate Alcohol Use: A Necessary Corrective to Assessments of Drinking Outcomes?