AVRT explicitly states that addiction is a function of the limbic (primitive) parts of the brain. That is why they use the term "beast."
However, "...Neuroscientists have begun to recognize that some of the most important brain systems impaired in addiction are those in the prefrontal cortex that regulate social cognition, self-monitoring, moral behaviour and other processes that the AA-type approach seems to target. 'A lot of the treatment programmes out there are targeting these systems without necessarily knowing that they are doing it,' says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland..."
4 March 2009
Neuroscience: "Rethinking rehab", Jim Schnabel, Nature 458, 25-27, doi:10.1038/458025a