The Use Of Addiction In William Gibson's Neuromancer

Have you ever felt trapped unable to escape a certain situation, as if stuck in a room with no doors? It is easy to get lost in this feeling living in this type of world. Living in a world full of endless possibilities people tend to get trapped in their own vice. A professor of psychology by the name of Dr. Stone once said “We are not trapped by our thoughts. What we generally do, however, is create thoughts that trap us” (Stone 162). This correlates directly to the character in the novel by William Gibson called Neuromancer. The novel depicts a hacker, by the name of Case, who steals from his employers. When caught his employers poison him with a Russian mycotoxin, from there he constantly abuses his body with drugs and dangerous activities.

People use these addictions to escape the world they live in, similarly to the way Case has a dependency on drugs. This type of dependency is usually started because people have the feeling of emptiness and are struggling with this feeling, looking for an easy way to feel better. Case was given the opportunity to escape his addiction, but instead Case states, “Thanks, but I was enjoying that dependency” (45). He enjoyed his dependency on drugs and alcohol because it was a form of an escape from his body, a chance to forget about his body slowly deteriorating. As Case gradually weakens he continues to abuse stimulants to help with the loss of energy. Case declares, “I’m a drug addict, Cath. Stimulants. Central nervous systems stimulants. Extremely powerful central system stimulants.” (Gibson 129-130) Using uppers allows him to feel the different kinds of feelings that he has not been able to due to his weakened state, which gives him a similar type of excitement. This type of enjoyment has been lost on Case because he feels trapped in his body by the lack of pleasure. Therefore, instead of allowing his body to health, which he was previously offered, he abuses it with harder substances that further entrap him within his body, with no means for an escape. He attempts to fix his dilemma of being trapped in his own body by replacing his bodily