Peg O'Connor Ph.D.

About

Peg O’Connor, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Her training is in moral philosophy, and in the last 15 years, her work has focused on addiction and trauma. She is the author of Recovering Character: Overcoming Addiction and Belonging to Yourself (forthcoming, Morgan James, 2027), Higher and Friendly Power: Recovery from Addiction (Wildhouse Publishing, 2022), and Life on the Rocks: Finding Meaning in Addiction and Recovery (Central Recovery Press, 2016).

Peg O’Connor is a recovering alcoholic who maintains that philosophy got and has helped her to stay sober. She understands addiction as a meaning-of-life problem, and no discipline is as well-suited as philosophy to address these sorts of questions. Work on addiction stirs philosophy in good ways by bringing it out of the ivory tower and back to the public realm. But philosophy will never be shaken.

Books by Peg O'Connor Ph.D.

Recent Posts

Those We Love Are Only Ever on Loan to Us

Clooney was never truly mine; he was gift on loan from the universe. He was never mine to keep permanently. That would be against the natural order of things. We are most miserable when we try to circumvent life’s processes and rhythms.

The Destruction of Joy, Meaning, and Value

"World sickness" provides a powerful framework for understanding the effects of acute or chronic suffering.

When Roles Swamp Our Identities

We run the risk of losing ourselves to the roles we play in life. We take them to be all-defining, which is a form of self-deception aided and abetted by others.

Why Some Balk at Surrendering in Recovery from Addiction

The concept of surrendering in addiction recovery is contentious. An alternative is renouncing, which can be empowering and liberating.

Stuck in Unhealthy Patterns?

Human life is organized in patterns. Addiction comprises multiple and overlapping patterns. Recovery involves creating new ones.

Self-Doubt Corrodes Self-Respect

Self-doubt tends to spread like wildfire. People struggling with addiction or living with trauma know this well. The challenge is to tip the balance towards self-respect.

Seven Challenges in Early Recovery From Addiction

While there are many externally imposed obstacles early in recovery, some of the biggest come from within us.

People-Pleasers Lose Themselves to Others

People-pleasing is a bad habit, which is like a fold in a piece of paper. People-pleasers are origami masters.

Have You Ever Met an Emotional Gangster?

Emotional gangsters can successfully engage in emotional extorting, embezzling, bribing, and loan sharking. Here's how they do it.

Is Love Addiction Real?

The concept of romantic love addiction is gaining traction in popular culture. Is an addiction framework the best way to understand this form of suffering?