Thank you Bill Ferny for this post, you never cease to provide thougthful analysis. I would like to touch on one more factor that you alluded to but discarded, that of denial. Denial is an intrinsic part of the addictive personality, and a primary symptom of the disease of addiction.
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Despite the ring’s obvious ability to deceive, the ring can not be limited to the drug/addiction model only. The ring has active operation; it can change the physical and mental attributes of the bearer. The changes are all at root evil, but they are real, and they correspond to the desires and natural inclinations of the bearers. Thus, Gollum’s doom is not a matter of being able to overcome addiction (though this might be a relatively small part of it), but a struggle to overcome the councils of a real being...
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It is this nature of what I will call individualized deception, the 'intelligent' quality of the Ring which you touched on, that most mimics the lure or attractiveness of a drug - whether or not the drug has been taken; whether or not the drug has been been discarded. This drug need not be of the narcotic variety, but may just as easily be the lure of power, money, lust, freedom from insecurity, adrenaline, etc.
In the cases of Boromir and Galadriel it is the denial of the true nature of the Ring that makes the acquisition of it plausible ("well, why shouldn't I take it?" type of thinking rather than "I absolutely have to have it, that's what I came here for." type thinking). The momentary and fleeting nature of their 'tests' is not a saving grace, especially in the case of Boromir. Quite clearly, a single moment of weakness can be all that is necessary to fall from a day or a lifetime worth of valiant resistance. Galadriel to felt this, but at her test, in that moment, she was strong enough to survive. Perchance Boromir had too many tests to face on the quest and succumed at the last. The danger facing most recovering addicts is not a need for the Ring (drug), but the denial present that makes it seem like a good idea to get it back - despite the knowledge of it's ruinous nature. Boromir too suffered from a denial of the truth, he was unknowingly blinded to the wisdom of the those that had educated him. Smeagol is different, he did not choose to give up the Ring, and that is a major first step in true recovering addicts. So Smeagol was not a 'recovering addict', he was still consciously consumed with the desire for it, which was his dilemna. Quite different than the phenomenon of denial.
Tar
[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Tar-Palantir ]