The Hidden Addiction

Peter Berlin has appeared on national TV, radio, in magazines and news media for over 30 years as a person who initially apprehended and interviewed shoplifters in retail stores and later founded the first national non-profit organization to help rehabilitate offenders. After receiving a BS degree in Psychology from Long Island University, Mr. Berlin later began working in retail stores interviewing shoplifters and dishonest employees and began to discover how many otherwise decent people engage in self-defeating behaviors without ever understanding why. . .or how to resolve their addictive patterns. He later discovered that the same stress, overreaction and inability to cope that lead people to shoplift is also replicated in other self-defeating behaviors. Mr. Berlin later began working with prosecutors, judges and probation personnel in juvenile and criminal courts to enroll shoplifters into education programs which he developed with a staff of psychologists. His national education programs have been accepted in thousands of courts in 46 states. Mr. Berlin also joined the prestigious Price Waterhouse firm and became the head of international consulting on retail theft to more than 100 retail firms worldwide. He published international monthly newsletters for 24 years. Mr. Berlin is a speaker and writer on the resolution of self-defeating behaviors.