Language Of Addiction Research Articles

Addiction, Intoxicants, and the Humoral Body

AbstractTaking the humoral body as its spatial focus, this article considers how medical writers and practitioners engaged with ‘intoxicants’ both in terms of the prescription of medicines and in the conceptualization of compulsive consumption – or what is often styled by modern practitioners as ‘addiction’. Focusing in the first instance on the compilers of vernacular pharmacopoeia – compilations of medical ingredients and techniques – the article argues that just as sugar, tobacco, and especially opiates had a significant and possibly transformative role in everyday physic, so the ‘operation’ of opiates, distilled spirits, and tobacco was crucial in stimulating new thinking about how bodies became substance-dependent. The article also argues, however, that, in order to conceptualize the problem, writers turned to the venerable language of custom rather than the relatively new language of addiction – in particular, the ancient idea of custom as ‘second nature’.

Nosology and metaphor: How pornography viewers make sense of pornography addiction

Pornography addiction is increasingly a focus of both lay and expert attention, despite ongoing debate as to whether viewing pornography can be categorized as such. The present study takes a step back from such debates to ask fundamental questions about how pornography addiction is conceptualized between such lay and expert jurisdictions, and how the flow of information between these domains helps to create and sustain a pornography addiction diagnosis. Drawing upon philosopher Ian Hacking's theory of ‘making up people’, responses from a qualitative survey ( n = 213), and semi-structured interviews ( n = 30) are analysed, attending specifically to how pornography viewers themselves draw upon different ways of explaining how a pornography addiction works, and how the language of addiction is applied as either a literal or metaphorical explanation of behaviour. The results indicate, not only that addiction criteria are applied in surprisingly diverse ways, but also that pornography addiction's boundaries are elastic, its definitions transient, and its use dependent upon both metaphor and claims to neurological knowledge. It is suggested that if pornography addiction is being taken seriously, it is necessary to elaborate upon this relationship between metaphor and nosology.

Changing the Language of Addiction.

Changing the Language of Addiction.

The Dirty Work of Poker: Impression Management and Identity

ABSTRACTPoker has penetrated mainstream popular culture in recent years with the emergence of internet poker sites and television coverage of poker’s largest events. However, not only do images of seedy, back alley poker games and riverboat gamblers persist in popular culture but the language of addiction has been attached to gambling. We draw on the research on identity, stigma and “dirty work” to examine how poker players negotiate an identity on poker and how that identity is managed both within and outside of the poker community. We show how the strategies players use for deflecting stigma are continually renegotiated.

Addiction screening and diagnostic tools: ‘Refuting’ and ‘unmasking’ claims to legitimacy

Human practices of all kinds – substance use, gambling, sex, even eating – are increasingly being reframed through the language of addiction. This ‘addicting’ of contemporary society is achieved, in part, through the screening and diagnostic tools intended to identify and measure addiction. These tools are a key element in the expert knowledge-making through which realities of addiction emerge. Promoted as objective and accurate, the tools are given legitimacy through application of scientific validation techniques. In this article, we critically examine the operations of these validation techniques as applied to substance addiction tools. Framed by feminist and other scholarship that decentres the epistemological guarantees of objectivity and validity, we structure our analysis using Ian Hacking's (1999) concepts of ‘refuting’ (showing a thesis to be false) and ‘unmasking’ (undermining a thesis). Under ‘refuting’, we consider the methodological validation processes on their own terms, identifying contradictory claims, weak findings and inconsistent application of methodological standards. Under ‘unmasking’, we critically analyse validation as a concept in itself. Here we identify two fundamental problems: symptom learning and feedback effects; and circularity and assumptions of independence and objectivity. Our analysis also highlights the extra-theoretical functions and effects of the tools. Both on their own terms and when subjected to more searching analysis, then, the validity claims the tools make fail to hold up to scrutiny. In concluding, we consider some of the effects of the processes we identify. Not only do these tools make certainty where there is none, we contend, they actively participate in the creation of social objects and social groups, and in shaping affected individuals and their opportunities. In unpacking in detail the legitimacy of the tools, our aim is to open up for further scrutiny the processes by which they go about making (rather than merely reflecting) the disease of addiction.

Effectively addressing addiction requires changing the language of addiction

Public knowledge and attitudes about addiction are largely inconsistent with scientific evidence. The gap between the facts and public and professional perceptions is due in part to the language used to describe the disease and those who have it. A key step in modifying public attitudes and improving how health professionals and policymakers address addiction is to better align the language of addiction with the scientific evidence. Unless we clarify the language, those with the disease will continue to experience the stigma associated with it and attempts to deliver comprehensive and effective evidence-based prevention, treatment, and disease management will be profoundly compromised.

Addiction as a complex social process: An action theoretical perspective

This article introduces an action theoretical perspective of addiction. The view that addiction resides solely within the individual continues to foster significant limitations across addiction theorizing, research, and treatment. Exclusive focus on an individual neurobiological level of analysis precludes important additional layers of understanding, for example, the roles of individual and joint human actions, the socially constituting processes of addiction, and the role of gender. Our perspective is that a neurobiological view on addiction is insufficient without consideration of goals, intentionality, relationships, and meaning. Using a composite case scenario, we offer an action theoretical framework for understanding individual and joint addiction processes over time and within the context of other life processes. This integrative framework considers manifest behaviors, internal and communicative processes, and the social meaning of addiction. This article offers a practical application of the theory and draws broad implications for the conceptualization and subsequent language of addiction.

Sara Munson Deats and Robert A. Logan, eds. Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe: Fresh Cultural Contexts. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008. xii + 250 pp. index. bibl. $89.95. ISBN: 978–0–7546–6204–4.

Sara Munson Deats and Robert A. Logan, eds. Placing the Plays of Christopher Marlowe: Fresh Cultural Contexts. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008. xii + 250 pp. index. bibl. $89.95. ISBN: 978–0–7546–6204–4. - Volume 61 Issue 4

Taking Mentality Seriously: A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Language of Addiction and Recovery

In this paper, I argue that the thought and behavior involved in drug dependence is associated with a certain pre-theoretic conception of the self that finds philosophical expression as a grossly simplified form of materialism. Addicts tend not to take mentality seriously: They do not understand themselves as minded beings capable of self-awareness and development through intentional action. Recognizing the practical implications of accepting this philosophically unconvincing view, I argue, encourages a modification of self-conception that is instrumental to the process of recovery from addiction. Using a combination of philosophical analysis and close reading of a trio of narratives that describe drug dependence and recovery, I pursue the possibility that rehabilitation may involve the clarification and alteration of self-conception in such a way that emphasizes autonomous agency and certain values that have not yet been embraced by twelve-step programs, namely, integration, apprehension, moderation, and self-discipline. The rich and substantial history of analytic–philosophical thought about the self is of immense practical value to people impacted by drug dependence and/or engaged in recovery from it; philosophy offers us a set of investigative tools, terms, and concepts that may help to map the different cognitive routes to successful self-rehabilitation. A philosophical consideration of the use of self-related words and ideas within the context of narratives of addiction and recovery may bear directly and significantly on the improvement of the lives of those persons who struggle to overcome drug dependence.

Surrender Versus Control: How Best Not to Drink

Surrender Versus Control:How Best Not to Drink Mark D. Rego (bio) Keywords addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, will, St. Augustine I recall as a teenager noticing that some people modified nouns in, what sounded to me, a peculiar way. A friend's mother who was taking an automotive repair course said, " We're going to learn to fix the brakes next week." The same folks would also use the possessive for common nouns in phrases like: "I'll be ready after I take my shower." Although not incorrect, I believe this type of usage reflected a different attitude about brakes, showers, and other things. These tended to be more hands-on people and thus, in my understanding at least, had a more particular relationship with things in their world than others for whom objects were examples of types of things. This brief vignette serves as an introduction to my qualified enthusiasm for the project taken up by Allison Mitchell in her paper, "Taking Mentality Seriously: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Language of Addiction and Recovery" (Mitchell, 2006). Indeed, as a practicing psychiatrist I would be hard pressed not to endorse the use of language as a key to deeper aspects of experience. My following remarks are mostly contra Mitchell's hypothesis, but before beginning I name one more reason I think this project is worthwhile. In spite of much research and recitations of the motto "treatment works," we do not presently have a reliable treatment for addiction. The linguistic portrait painted by Mitchell allows us to view our treatments in vivo and reflect upon what we see. (For the purpose of this commentary, I consider alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] as a general example of addiction and treatment.) Medication treatment remains almost inconsequential except when applied for comorbid psychiatric disorders rather than the primary addiction. Even then it rarely serves to undo some form of self-medication, but instead only offers an important leg up in battling the addiction. Research and much experience has shown AA to be the single best treatment for alcoholism (Vaillant and Hiller-Sturmhofel 1996). Some investigators have proposed underlying mechanisms for its efficacy (some, like "creating dependency" run very counter to Mitchell) (Vaillant 2005). AA's success is highly dependent upon attendance (McCrady et al. 2004), which can of course be a marker for getting better in the first place and not solely a cause of improvement (i.e., people who are doing better attend more meetings not vice- versa). Even within AA, the dropout rate is quite high (Martin et al. 1996). Workers in this area [End Page 223] have raised questions about AA's approach and have proposed other avenues to sobriety, including interpersonal, cognitive–behavioral, and relapse prevention programs (Witkiewitz and Marlatt 2005, 2004; O'Dwyer 2006). Lamentably, some very large studies failed to show any effective ability to match up alcoholics with a particular treatment modality (Church 2004; Read 2004). Given the lack of clarity with which we still work, I think an approach like Mitchell's is a welcome call for serious reflection. The limitations of a linguistic analysis place an unfortunate constriction on implications to be drawn. Mitchell's chief concern is that the language of recovery, as reflected in twelve-step programs, betrays and even fosters a degree of passivity, which leaves the addict without an adequate sense of agency and autonomy with which to combat addiction. From a more philosophical perspective, Mitchell believes this is due to an incomplete philosophical materialism; one that lacks "mentality" (i.e., the sense that part of our physical being is made up of mental activities such as emotions, motivations, beliefs, etc.). This attitude is manifest in a "pretheoretic conception of the self" that leaves the addict with a dearth of self-awareness as a mental agent of action and change. In place of the standard recovery model in use today, Mitchell suggests cultivating a sense of self that values and fosters engaged agency that is both capable of self-control and responsive to external obligations. A Few Concerns First, I will offer a few concerns about premises at work within the paper. Then, I outline an attempt to make sense of the...

Degrees of Culpability: Aristotle and the Language of Addiction

Degrees of Culpability: Aristotle and the Language of Addiction

Book Review: The Culture of Recovery: Making Sense of the Self-Help Movement in Women's Lives

The Culture of Recovery: Making Sense of the Self-Help Movement in Women's Lives, by Elayne Rapping (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 256 pp., $24.00, cloth only. The 12-step has permeated 1990s American culture. This is both a reflection of and a contradictory, confusing development in the enduring struggle for gender justice that originated with second wave feminism. That is the conclusion reached by media critic and columnist Elayne Rapping (Communications/Adelphi University) in The Culture of Recovery, a feminist analysis of the flourishing selfhelp that originated with the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Intending lay bare the deeply reactionary agenda the [recovery] supports (p. 8), Rapping critically examines the proliferation of 12-step groups and thought in contemporary society. In a tone that is simultaneously respectful and severely cautionary, Rapping illuminates the strengths, contradictions, twists and transformations of feminist ideology within the idiom manifest today in the media, in literature, and even in politics. Rather than being disillusioned by this burgeoning and often repressive presence, Rapping regards the as an interruption, not an end point, in the ongoing feminist-driven revolution in gender politics. The Culture of Recovery is as much a cultural and social history as an analysis of the movement. In a brief introduction and six chapters, Rapping reviews much that is familiar about the social, economic and political climate of the last three decades vis-a-vis feminism and the movement. Beginning with a focus on the television and film media, she describes the changing representations of women and in the context of the social transformations and economic interests of an evolving postindustrial society. Chapter two examines, in a and cursory (though well referenced) fashion, the evolution of second wave feminism. Beginning with the utopian vision of revolutionary leaders of the sixties, Rapping traces the disillusionment, backlash and ultimate reformulation of feminist thought into the nineties. By examining the internal structures of the movement, including operation within educational, medical and criminal justice systems, Rapping establishes, in chapter three, the linkage between feminist history and the history of the as it has evolved since the eighties. Each of the remaining three chapters-focused upon the movement's social workings, master narratives, and political uses, respectively-incorporates that historical perspective into this analysis. Rapping states from the outset her intention to conduct this analysis of the with an eye toward its roots in feminist history, culture and theory (p. 8). She delimits feminist history to that period since the sixties when second wave feminism propelled the personal into political discourse and activism. Feminism provoked dramatic and transformative changes in the way women thought about and acted in their lives and relationships. It focused attention on the public and political causes of suffering. It acted, with mixed success, to find public and political solutions to that suffering. As defined by Rapping, the recovery movement excludes AA and Narcotics Anonymous. It consists, instead, of the Anonymous/12-Step groups founded in the 1980s and 1990s that deal with emotional/relational issues (p. 190, n. 4). This movement, she asserts, incorporates selective features of feminist ideology and strategy in providing a response to the tensions and demands of a postmodern, postfeminist world. However, in using the language of addiction and recovery, the focuses on the effects rather than the causes of suffering. This blending of feminist thought and apolitical context is at once the movement's strength and potential danger to gender justice. …

Screening for current drug use disorders in alcoholics: an application of receiver operating characteristic analysis

The major objectives of the present study were 2-fold: (1) to demonstrate the superiority of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology in the comparison of screening tests that yield continuous values; and (2) to identify the best screening indicator of current drug use disorders in alcoholics. We evaluated the ability of the screening tests to detect drug use disorder (DUD) according to the research diagnostic criteria. Results showed that the language of addiction — drug version and the reasons for drug use (RDU) screening tests offered excellent detectability for current DUD. The accuracy of both tests was reduced as the result of broadening the clinical spectrum in the comparative group. Implications of these findings to the neglected topic of clinical and co-morbid spectrums in screening test evaluation is presented. Issues surrounding the use of psychiatric diagnoses as standards, assessment of efficacy, the role of screening in defining subthreshold disorder, and the use of biochemical screening as an adjunct to the questionnaire approach are also discussed.

Manual for alcoholic scales of the inventory of habits and attitudes (IHA).

Scales designed to show individual differences in alcoholics and differences between alcoholics and other groups were developed by factor analytic and empirical methods using personaliry, demographic, and alcohol experience items from the Inventory of Habits and Attitudes (IHA). IHA was constructed by Monroe and Hill as a matched form of their Personal Inventory (PI). PI was designed to measure characteristics of opiate addicts, especially Acceptability for Psychotherapy (AP). Several studies have indicated the utility of AP. A Language of Addiction and General Alcoholic Scale differentiated alcoholics from opiate addicts, mentally ill, and normal Ss by 3 SDs. The factor strucrure of scales was similar in boch alcoholics and nonalcoholics.