Beyond Willpower “Science, Therapeutic Alliance and Strategy in the Process of Quitting Smoking — A Conversation with Dr. Colin Mendelsohn”
Author: Claudio Teixeira
Each cigarette carries a weight beyond habit: it is living memory, exposed vulnerability, and a daily act of survival. Addressing quitting smoking means unearthing deep layers—biological, emotional, social—that rarely receive the analysis they deserve. It is confronting the point where body and culture merge into a dependence that is not always chosen but almost always condemned.
This conversation does not offer formulas or rigid rules. It is an invitation to rethink tobacco use as a complex human phenomenon, where desire and pain, chemistry and cultural narrative, pleasure, shame, and guilt intertwine. A gray area where the physiological dialogues with the symbolic, and every attempt to quit is an act of personal redefinition. It preserves the intimacy of a sincere conversation, unafraid of contradiction, doubt, or uncomfortable lucidity. Here, quitting smoking is not an end, but a beginning: an uncertain yet possible process to reconnect with the body, negotiate desire, and reconcile with a history marked by dependence.
Today, tobacco use stands at a crossroads. On one hand, it persists as a habit resistant to decades of policies and campaigns. On the other, more realistic and compassionate strategies are emerging, aiming to reduce harm without demanding abstinence at any cost. Despite accumulated knowledge and advances, smoking remains a leading preventable cause of disease and death worldwide. The challenge is not only nicotine itself but the lives surrounding it: pe