This book proposes a radical new way to give up smoking. Smokers know that they should quit, but they must want to do so. Instead of telling smokers for the hundredth time why smoking is bad and why they should give it up — a pointless exercise that has no therapeutic effect — this new method empowers smokers by respecting their freedom.

“Free to smoke, glad to quit” is the motto of a step-by-step method that uses a series of fill-in exercises and quizzes to guide the smoker and to facilitate self-analysis.

• A new medically approved method to quit smoking based on three major contemporary approaches:

—Understanding tobacco dependence: How cognitive-behavioural therapies and motivational methods can be used to overcome dependence.

—“Therapeutic education”: How patients afflicted with chronic disorders can be made autonomous through a structured learning process that includes the evaluation of acquired knowledge and skills.

—Accounting for smokers' emotions.

• A highly practical book that becomes increasingly relevant to the individual patient as the exercises are completed.

Stéphane Vagnarelli is a psychologist. He has worked in the Department of Pneumology at Hôpital Avicenne, Bobigny, since 1998. He teaches at the Universities of Paris-VII and Paris-XIII and is a consultant for STIMULUS.