Addiction: Transdisciplinary Perspectives — An Introductory Bibliography (original) (raw)
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Conceptualizing addiction has been a matter of intense debate for decades. For many, addiction theory has applied only to alcohol, tobacco or drug ingestion, with most definitions concentrated on these substances. Despite such focus, there is increasing empirical evidence to illustrate a wider number of behaviours are potentially addictive such as gambling, overeating, sex love, exercise, videogame playing/ pinball internet use, buying/shopping and work (see Sussman, Lisha, & Griffiths, 2011). Such diversity has led to new, broader definitions of what constitutes an addictive behaviour.
Toward a Social Theory of Addiction
In this paper, I address the lack of a coherent or useful cross-disciplinary understanding of “addiction” as a category. I first contextualize the essentialization of addiction within history, suggesting that the concept arose in a period in which ascribing deviancy to individual bodies was rendered socially useful. I then address the handling of addiction within various disciplinary communities, arguing that it has been treated as a singular, atemporal object with discrete boundaries and some sole underlying cause. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s practice theory, I propose a shift away from this sort of understanding, instead reframing addiction as a particular sort of social patterning which involves time-based strategy not entirely separate from social behavior more generally (that is, social behavior which is not considered “deviant”). I then apply this new approach to thinking about addiction to two examples (the work of sociologist Alfred R. Lindesmith and a memoir by former heroin addict Laura Lang), concluding that it is imperative that addiction researchers be aware when they are making an epistemic fallacy: that is, reifying something as an object which might better be regarded as something else entirely.
Johnson, B. (1999). Three Perspectives On Addiction.
Three perspectives on addiction promulgated during the 1990s are reviewed, along with many earlier contributions to the understanding of addictive illness. It is suggested that these distinct yet overlapping formulations of the dynamics of addiction form a hierarchy for each patient suffering from an addiction. Assessment of a patient's ego strength, and of the relative importance of addictive behaviors in overall character structure, allows referral to various types of treatment, including psychoanalytic therapy. Case examples are presented, including material from the psychoanalysis of a woman addicted to heroin, methadone, cocaine, amphetamines, nicotine, alcohol, and shopping.
Attempts to Better Understand Addiction using Etiological Models of Addiction
International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research
I find it to be incredibly fascinating as a researcher to follow the development of a profession and the specializations within it. The history of addiction counseling, a subfield of the counseling profession, has developed in a manner like that of many other helping professions, including social work, psychiatry, nursing, and medicine. In the past, practitioners had less training and supervision when it came to understanding addiction as a condition that would call for professional assistance. It will substantially advance the body of research and aid counselors in their understanding of the values and requirements of various people. In order to comprehend the etiology of addiction, this article also analyses many causation models, such as moral, psychological, family, disease, biological, sociocultural, and multi-cause models. Addiction counselors are not merely specialists who work with alcoholics or addicts in recovery solely on the basis of their former substance use. Addiction...
This paper engages with the construct of addiction by mapping the historical development of the social logic of the concept. In view of the proposed embracement of the term by the new DSM V, this revisiting of the literature surrounding a highly charged concept is considered timely. The paper presents a discussion about the complexities involved in determining the implications emanating from the construct of addiction with special emphasis on the issue of human agency. Different representations of the addiction construct are discussed. These representations are located within various models, which frame and shape the understanding and the handling of the addicted person. Constructs of addiction, as they emerge from the dominant disease model of addiction, are mainly problematised. Finally, this paper highlights the continued 'usefulness' and the validity of the addiction construct despite its complexities and recommends further research on the career model.