Addiction as accomplishment: The discursive construction of disease

Reinarman, Craig

doi:10.1080/16066350500077728

Cited by 281 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Disregarding this "psychobiological core" (Moore, 1992, p. 460) of the criteria presumably makes the diagnostic scheme more relevant to cannabis use, but it can also facilitate politically inspired or otherwise subjective definitions of cannabis dependence. This change in criteria is consistent with the broader conceptualisation of addiction generally and the consequent use of "disease" to describe compulsive engagement in a wide range of behaviours other than drug use (Earleywine, 2002;Hall & Pacula, 2003;Reinarman, 2005;Room, 1998). Indeed, the latitude is such that one can be diagnosed as dependent without exhibiting impairment or loss of control (Room, 1998).…”

Section: The Social Construction Of Cannabis Dependencementioning

confidence: 67%

Social constructions of dependency by blunts smokers: Qualitative reports

Dunlap

Benoit

Sifaneck

et al. 2006

International Journal of Drug Policy

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Concerns about the risk of cannabis dependence have been renewed in recent years by changing patterns of consumption, including increased levels of use, easier access to high-potency strains of cannabis and the rising popularity of blunts (tobacco cigar shells filled with cannabis). Such concerns have been reinforced by a number of studies suggesting that cannabis dependence, as measured by DSM criteria, has indeed increased. However, there are reasons to question these findings. First, the studies may not accurately reflect users' experiences, for a number of methodological and conceptual reasons. Equally important, they do not examine the practice of smoking blunts, which exposes cannabis users to nicotine and has obvious implications for dependence (and other health problems). In this paper we reveal social understandings of dependence by analysing in-depth interviews with 92 users of blunts and cannabis in other forms in New York City. We also discuss ethnographic observations of these users and others that reveal practises and norms relevant to the risk of cannabis dependence. We find that users' experiences and descriptions do not correspond to official dependence criteria and that some use practices, such as smoking blunts in groups, promote moderate consumption rather than compulsive use. Respondents also associated nicotine with dependence, suggesting that research on cannabis dependence should be designed to include blunt smoking.

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Section: The Social Construction Of Cannabis Dependencementioning

confidence: 67%

Social constructions of dependency by blunts smokers: Qualitative reports

Dunlap

Benoit

Sifaneck

et al. 2006

International Journal of Drug Policy

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“…Reinarman (2005) has described how the lexicon of addiction-as-disease is taught by counsellors, judges, therapists and other drug users, and certainly, the performance of acknowledgment and acceptance (as opposed to denial) of addiction that is required in treatment services provides a possibility for moral redemption from the reprehensible category of junkie. Valverde (1998) has analysed how the one-day-at-a-time motif of Alcoholics Anonymous and its sister organisations provide means for understanding recovery as the habit of staying dry/clean rather than necessarily being linked to the contaminated self of the drinker/addict.…”

Section: The Stigmatisation Of the Junkiementioning

confidence: 99%

Are drug treatment services only for ‘thieving junkie scumbags’? Drug users and the management of stigmatised identities

Radcliffe

Stevens

2008

Social Science & Medicine

248

201

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a b s t r a c tThis article uses qualitative interviews with 53 problematic drug users who had dropped out of treatment in England, UK to explore how they describe the stigmatisation of drug users and drug services. It discusses the construction of the category of the junkie through its association with un-controlled heroin use and criminality. It shows how some drug users carefully manage information about their discreditable identities by excluding themselves from this category, while acknowledging its validity for other drug users. The junkie identity was generally seen as shameful and therefore to be avoided, although it holds attractions for some drug users. For many of the interviewees, entry to treatment risked exposing their own activities as shaming, as they saw treatment as being a place that was populated by junkies and where it becomes more difficult to manage discreditable information. The treatment regime, e.g. the routine of supervised consumption of methadone, was itself seen by some as stigmatising and was also seen as hindering progress to the desired 'normal' life of conventional employment. Participation in the community of users of both drugs and drug services was perceived as potentially damaging to the prospects of recovery. This emphasises the importance of social capital, including links to people and opportunities outside the drug market. It also highlights the danger that using the criminal justice system to concentrate prolific offenders in treatment may have the perverse effects of excluding other people who have drug problems and of prolonging the performance of the junkie identity within treatment services. It is concluded that treatment agencies should address these issues, including through the provision of more drug services in mainstream settings, in order to ensure that drug services are not seen to be suitable only for one particularly stigmatised category of drug user.

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“…Word choice and metaphors used to describe alcohol's effects on the brain in the Swedish press discourse are, therefore, more open to interpretations that blame the addicted person than metaphors used to describe brain function as such. As noted above, the scientists interviewed in the Swedish press are opposed to blaming the individual, but given the role of individual blame in justifying punitive sanctions against misusers, for example in the US (Reinarman 2005), an important task for future research is to study how notions such as 'shortcut' and 'undeserved reward' are interpreted and used by politicians and treatment professionals in the addiction field.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, metaphors may be used as excuses for behavior that others disapprove of or they may be used by politicians and policy-makers, treatment professionals, and others in the field, to legitimate treatment or punishment (cf. Reinarman 2005). The notions and metaphors used to describe the effects of alcohol and drugs in the newspaper discourse -'undeserved reward' and 'shortcuts' to pleasure -can also be understood from the perspective of their everyday connotations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Alcohol short-circuits important part of the brain’: Swedish newspaper representations of biomedical alcohol research

Bogren

2016

Addiction Research & Theory

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The media has a central role in communicating and constructing health knowledge, including communicating research findings related to alcohol consumption. However, research on news reporting about alcohol is still a relatively small field; in particular, there are few studies of the reporting of biomedical alcohol and drug research, despite the assumed increasing popularity of biomedical perspectives in public discourse in general. The present article addresses the representational 'devices' used in Swedish press reporting about biomedical alcohol research, drawing on qualitative thematic analysis of the topics, metaphors, and optimist versus critical frames used in presenting biomedical research findings. In general, the press discourse focuses on genetic factors related to alcohol problems, on the role of the brain and the reward system in addiction, and on medication for treating alcohol problems. Metaphors of 'reconstruction' and 'reprograming' of the reward system are used to describe how the brain's function is altered in addiction, whereas metaphors of 'undeserved reward' and 'shortcuts' to pleasure are used to describe alcohol's effects on the brain. The study indicates that aspects of the Swedish press discourse of biomedical alcohol research invite reductionism, but that this result could be understood from the point of view of both the social organization of reporting and the intersection of reporting, science, and everyday understandings rather than from the point of view of the news articles only. Moreover, some characteristics of the media portrayals leave room for interpretation, calling for research on the meanings ascribed to metaphors of addiction in everyday interaction. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Addiction as accomplishment: The discursive construction of disease

Cited by 281 publications

References 16 publications

Social constructions of dependency by blunts smokers: Qualitative reports

Social constructions of dependency by blunts smokers: Qualitative reports

Are drug treatment services only for ‘thieving junkie scumbags’? Drug users and the management of stigmatised identities

‘Alcohol short-circuits important part of the brain’: Swedish newspaper representations of biomedical alcohol research

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