| The criminalization of opium and cocaine usage in 1914 signalled a profound shift in American culture. Attending this effort to restrict access to particular drugs was a movement to treat drug-using behavior as a form of psychological or organic deviancy. Immoderation that had once been a tolerated form of irresponsibility came to be viewed as a symptom of disease that required remediation.; This coincidence of legal sanctions and definitions of deviancy, attached to the use of certain drugs, is rooted in the unique concerns which define the modern era. The development of modernity institutionalized philosophical and economic forms that were radically different from preceding social structures. These new structures introduced deep cultural changes, including a reconstituted definition of the human person that conformed to the demands of the modern era. The penal sanctions and definitions of deviancy, in regard to drug usage, are two results of this re-constitution. They are both contrivances and conveyances of modernity.; This dissertation analyzes the creation of addiction as a modern hygienic concept, especially as constructed by the medical institution. An historical overview places the theory of addiction within the context of developing modern culture. The interplay between knowledge and power is examined, by which the effects of modernity are established. These effects are then traced through the progression of diagnostic models and their application to people. Case studies of five people diagnosed as addicted are used as concrete examples.; The paradigmatic mode of thought, which characterizes medical diagnostics in particular and modern thought in general, is then contrasted with narrative thinking. Using case studies, it is demonstrated how people with addictive problems approach their affliction in a narrative manner. The structure of narrative thought is examined and how that structure affects the self-knowledge of identified individuals and creates both biographical and institutional patterns. These patterns are then analyzed in order to achieve a revised, narrative understanding of problems labeled as addictive in nature. |
