TY - JOUR
T1 - Diffracting addicting binaries
T2 - An analysis of personal accounts of alcohol and other drug ‘addiction’
AU - Pienaar, Kiran
AU - Moore, David M J
AU - Fraser, Suzanne
AU - Kokanovic, Renata
AU - Treloar, Carla
AU - Dilkes-Frayne, Ella
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Associated with social and individual harm, loss of control and destructive behaviour, addiction is widely considered to be a major social problem. Most models of addiction, including the influential disease model, rely on the volition/compulsion binary, conceptualising addiction as a disorder of compulsion. In order to interrogate this prevailing view, this article draws on qualitative data from interviews with people who describe themselves as having an alcohol or other drug ‘addiction’, ‘dependence’ or ‘habit’. Applying the concept of ‘diffraction’ elaborated by science studies scholar Karen Barad, we examine the process of ‘addicting’, or the various ways in which addiction is constituted, in accounts of daily life with regular alcohol and other drug use. Our analysis suggests not only that personal accounts of addiction exceed the absolute opposition of volition/compulsion but also that the polarising assumptions of existing addicting discourses produce many of the negative effects typically attributed to the ‘disease of addiction’.
AB - Associated with social and individual harm, loss of control and destructive behaviour, addiction is widely considered to be a major social problem. Most models of addiction, including the influential disease model, rely on the volition/compulsion binary, conceptualising addiction as a disorder of compulsion. In order to interrogate this prevailing view, this article draws on qualitative data from interviews with people who describe themselves as having an alcohol or other drug ‘addiction’, ‘dependence’ or ‘habit’. Applying the concept of ‘diffraction’ elaborated by science studies scholar Karen Barad, we examine the process of ‘addicting’, or the various ways in which addiction is constituted, in accounts of daily life with regular alcohol and other drug use. Our analysis suggests not only that personal accounts of addiction exceed the absolute opposition of volition/compulsion but also that the polarising assumptions of existing addicting discourses produce many of the negative effects typically attributed to the ‘disease of addiction’.
KW - discourse analysis
KW - experiencing illness and narratives
KW - theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027522761&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1363459316674062
DO - 10.1177/1363459316674062
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85027522761
VL - 21
SP - 519
EP - 537
JO - Health
JF - Health
SN - 1363-4593
IS - 5
ER -