WHAT INDEED? –
Jan. 9, 2026 – Why do people with addiction use drugs self-destructively? Why don’t they quit out of self-concern? Why does the rat in the experiment, alone in a cage, press the lever again and again for cocaine—to the point of death? In this pathbreaking book, Hanna Pickard proposes a new paradigm for understanding the puzzle of addiction. For too long, our thinking has been hostage to a false dichotomy: either addiction is a brain disease, or it is a moral failing. Pickard argues that it is neither, and that both models stifle addiction research and fail people who need help. Why did you call the book What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine?
Hanna Pickard: Understanding addiction is not only a scientific project but a humanistic and imaginative endeavor. Beginning with the title, I directly address you, the reader, at various points throughout the book to invite you to participate in this endeavor. But the title also alludes to an important scientific experiment from the early days of animal models of addiction. In this experiment, rats were trained to press a lever to get a dose of cocaine, delivered immediately and intravenously. They were then permanently housed in an experimental chamber containing only food, water, and the lever, which they could press for as much cocaine as they wanted. In other words, the rats were effectively alone in a cage with nothing but cocaine. The title symbolizes the book’s integration of science and humanism by asking you to imagine what you would do if, like the rats in this experiment, you were living in these circumstances.
What happened to the rats in the study?
HP: You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the rats in this study took a lot of cocaine. Because cocaine suppresses hunger and thirst, they also stopped eating and drinking. Within a month, 90 percent died.
