Google Doodle celebrates the life of Dr Herbert Kleber — who changed the perception of drug addiction

• Google Doodle is honouring addiction psychiatrist Dr Herbert Kleber today — on the 23rd anniversary of his election to the National Academy of Medicine.
  
• A Massachusetts-based artist Jarrett J. Krosoczka sketched the doodle.
  
• Kleber changed the world’s perception of around addiction. He termed it as a medical condition, and not a moral failure.
  
• In 1968, he was appointed as the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy by the then US President George H. W. Bush.

Google Doodle is honouring addiction psychiatrist Dr Herbert Kleber today — on the 23rd anniversary of his election to the National Academy of Medicine, an American NGO.

A Massachusetts-based artist Jarrett J. Krosoczka sketched the doodle. The doodle page shows an interview with his wife Anne Burlock Lawver. The doodle remembers the addiction psychiatrist days before his death anniversary on October 5, 2018.

“One way I see Herb’s visionary brilliance is through his ability for problem-solving, whether domestically or professionally. When everyone else was looking in one direction, Herb would (metaphorically) turn his head and his thinking to somewhere completely different — and come up with original, viable solutions,” The Hindu reported citing wife Lawver.

Medical condition, not a moral failure

Kleber changed the world’s perception of addiction. He termed it as a medical condition, and not a moral failure. He spent over 50 years studying substance abuse and its treatment.

The Pennsylvania-born American researcher kicked off his career in 1964 from a prison in Kentucky, by treating addiction patients there. Here, he realised that the prisoners would return to drug use and overdose after release. He developed an ‘evidence-based treatment’ backed by scientific research.

Four years later, he founded the Drug Dependence Unit at the Yale University School of Psychiatry and served as the head of the unit for 20 years — after which, he was appointed as the deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy by former US President George H. W. Bush.

Kleber also co-founded the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse. He studied the treatment of individuals with cocaine, alcohol and heroin addictions. He has published over 250 research papers on substance abuse and addiction treatment.

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