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Professional, Personal, and Popular Culture Perspectives on Addiction

NCJ Number
157662
Journal
American Behavioral Scientist Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Dated: (February 1995) Pages: 537-552
Author(s)
E C Hirschman
Date Published
1995
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article presents three vantage points from which to observe the phenomenon of addiction: professional models of social science, lay models of popular culture, and personal understanding of the author who is a social scientist and a recovering drug addict.
Abstract
An overview of professional theorization regarding addiction is presented. Although multiple schools of thought prevail concerning addiction, the primary focus is on the biopsychosocial model developed by Donovan. In keeping with observations of many social scientists involved in studying addictive and excessive behaviors, the biopsychosocial model proposes that such behaviors are actually diverse manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorders that share similar etiologies and origins. Popular culture narrative are introduced that are representative of current cultural understandings of addiction. Similarities and differences between socially constructed accounts of addiction and those constructed by social scientists are explored, especially in terms of their ramifications for the cultural identification and treatment of addicted persons. The author describes the intermingling of etic and emic perspectives that her dual status as a social scientist and as a recovering drug addict has brought to her life. Addition is discussed in terms of brain chemistry, nature, and nurture. 30 references and 8 notes

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