Chez Chesler

According to a wire service story, such as this one,

Drug or alcohol abusers who relapse, even after long periods of abstinence, are often reviled as too weak or undisciplined to straighten themselves out. But a UNC Chapel Hill psychologist has found evidence that suggests, in fact, that addicts’ brains may be wired in a way that makes them more prone to give in to temptation. The research, published in the December issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides further evidence that addiction is a disease, not a character flaw, said Charlotte Boettiger, an assistant professor of psychology at UNC Chapel Hill and the lead author of the paper released last week.

I thought character was our intrinsic, and largely immutable, makeup (compared to personality, which can be more variable, or mood, which is highly variable.) Merriam-Webster online distinguishes character as the aggregate of moral qualities by which a person is judged apart from intelligence, competence, or special talents (distinguishing character, disposition, temperament, temper, and personality). Many non-physical, personality, traits are genetically influenced. Some people have to work harder than others to get to the same place -- for some things, no amount of hard work can compensate. How does the fact that a particular trait, in this case impulsivity and the tendency to addiction, is genetically influenced preclude it from being a character flaw? What does it matter if something is a character flaw or not? I want the driver I'm sharing the road with to be sober. I don't care if he's sober because he doesn't have a particular craving for alcohol, or if he's sober because he's managed to overcome that craving.