This book is a somewhat eclectic edited collection, based on a series of conference papers, pulled together by an overarching introduction and conclusion. What unites the papers is an anthropological understanding of addiction; previously such papers were contained overwhelmingly in monographs or journal articles, and this is a welcome addition to the addiction literature. The book aims to discuss addiction trajectories in three broad senses. First, changing concepts of addiction over time, relating to cultural and political views of addiction, and how this impacts on policies within criminal justice and public health. Second, how addicts and treatment interact, by providing details of the lived experiences of addicts who undergo treatment for a broad range of addiction both as inpatients and within the community. Third, how those who are addicted experience their lives, including their family and personal circumstances, and how this impacts on their addiction. Whilst the volume does not provide broad coverage of these areas, this is in no way a criticism. In fact, many of the chapters provide data and commentary which address all three issues. The chapters are discrete and focus on in-depth case studies which used a range of ethnographic approaches. Throughout the volume, the authors provide rich descriptions of what it means to be addicted. For example, chapter 1 opens with a highly engaging account of one heroin addict's near death from overdose, beginning when she is abandoned outside the emergency department of a hospital and then describing her previous and subsequent treatment episodes. Throughout these chapters, detailing the experiences of individuals, I can feel the pain of the loss of a sister (chapter 1), a son (chapter 7) and the disappointment of a mother when all six of her children are addicts (chapter 2). Social circumstances, including poverty, education and employment trajectories are also detailed within the narratives of addicts' lives. Alongside this, rich descriptions of the field provide readers with details of the often monotonous day-to-day routines of the participants. Thus, this volume firmly links the social circumstances of the addict to their addiction. As well as the detailed experiences of those who are addicted, or who receive treatment, chapter 4 is an engaging account of the differences between faith-based and pharma-based treatments in the USA, which is solidly informed by theory. This is accompanied by an account of discourses used in addiction therapies (chapter 6). Although this chapter is a more challenging read, it provides a thorough critique of Motivational Interviewing, a counselling based approach often used in addiction treatment, which is well worth a read. What is central to each chapter in this volume, is an in-depth understanding of a population of addicts within a defined geographical area, ranging from one addict living in urban New Mexico, USA to a group of Russian travellers living in Marseille, France, with Russian alcoholics living in St Petersburg and an older woman living in Las Vegas, USA also included in the volume. This approach is not mirrored by other recent academic books, which focus on the biological, psychological and sociological accounts of addiction into evidence based theories of addiction (see for example West and Brown 2013), or proposing ways to treat addiction. However, this ethnographic and theoretically driven approach has been seen within the peer reviewed literature, including my own work on smoking cessation services (Grant et al. 2014), and inclusion of research focusing specifically on tobacco, arguably the most damaging addiction worldwide, would have been a welcome addition to the volume. I very much enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to qualitative researchers embarking on research in addiction, doctoral students and healthcare professionals working in the field of addiction but also more widely as engaging examples of ethnographic research which has been well conducted. Two of the chapters (chapter 1 – heroin addiction; chapter 8 – metha-mphetamine addiction) would be suitable for undergraduate teaching. To conclude, Addiction Trajectories was an easy and interesting read, covering a wide range of topics on addiction through a series of ethnographic case studies. The volume is a very welcome addition to the literature on addiction.
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Jun 20, 2024
Kyung-Yi Do + 1
Open Access