Governing desire in the biomolecular era: Addiction science and the making of neurochemical subjects.

This thesis investigates the development and implications of contemporary understandings of addiction that have emerged over the last half century within biomolecular and neurobiological 'styles of thought.' The analysis, based upon historical and archival research, is organized around the shift from conceptualizations of addiction as an organic or molar disease - that is, a disease that was thought to affect individuals in some general, but unspecified way (for example, by affecting 'the will') - to neuroscience conceptualizations of addiction as a disease of the brain. The thesis examines the interplay of cultural, political, economic, and technological factors that have influenced which particular ways of going about studying, thinking about, and researching addiction have been pursued most actively. In doing so, it brings into question the assumption that changes in styles of thinking about addiction occur as a consequence of the discovery of 'natural' neurochemical truths of the brain, independent of political rationalities, material considerations and realities, and scientific entrepreneurship. It also investigates how neuroscience models are transforming the ways that clinical, legal, and, personal, and social problems associated with drug use and addiction are dealt with. It particularly focuses on the development and use of 'anticraving' medications, which are today being prescribed to treat compulsive desires for a range of drug addictions, including 'behavioural addictions' such as pathological gambling and compulsive shopping. It relates these new forms of 'brain-targeting' treatment and intervention to the emergence of new classifications of mental health and illness, and to new ways of thinking about and acting upon individuals as neurochemical subjects

Just How Cognitive Is “Cognitive Enhancement”? On the Significance of Emotions in University Students’ Experiences with Study Drugs

Numerous deliberations on the ethics of cognitive enhancement take as their primary case the nonmedical use of prescription stimulant drugs by university students seeking to improve their performance in relation to academic work. Almost without exception, such discussions suggest that these medications enable academic performance enhancement through effects on cognitive processes. This article reports findings from qualitative research with nonmedical users that indicate that stimulants’ effects on users’ emotions and feelings are an important contributor to users’ perceptions of improved academic performance. On the basis of these findings, the article suggests the conceptualization of nonmedical use of stimulants in terms of “cognitive enhancement” may fail to adequately capture the perspectives and experiences of individuals who use stimulant drugs as study aids

Everyday drug diversions:A qualitative study of the illicit exchange and non-medical use of prescription stimulants on a university campus

AbstractThis article investigates everyday experiences and practises that are associated with processes of pharmaceuticalization and with practices of ‘drug diversion’—that is, the illicit exchange and non-medical use of prescription drugs. It reports results from a qualitative study that was designed to examine the everyday dimensions of non-medical prescription stimulant use among students on an American university campus, which involved 38 semi-structured interviews with individuals who used prescription stimulants as a means of improving academic performance. While discussions of drug diversion are often framed in terms of broad, population-level patterns and demographic trends, the present analysis provides a complementary sociocultural perspective that is attuned to the local and everyday phenomena. Results are reported in relation to the acquisition of supplies of medications intended for nonmedical use. An analysis is provided which identifies four different sources of diverted medications (friends; family members; black-market vendors; deceived clinicians), and describes particular sets of understandings, practices and experiences that arise in relation to each different source. Findings suggest that at the level of everyday experience and practice, the phenomenon of prescription stimulant diversion is characterised by a significant degree of complexity and heterogeneity

Governing disease, governing desire : subtitle subjectivity and the logic of recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous

Through an examination of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), this thesis investigates the origins and implications of an alcoholic subjectivity that seems to necessitate the establishment of certain regimes of governance, both by alcoholics themselves and by agents of social regulation or coordination. Based on historical research, textual analysis of primary documents, and participant observation studies, it challenges prevailing accounts of AA, the dominant modality of alcoholism treatment in North America, as an exclusively spiritual or ethical program. Instead, it demonstrates that since the 1930s, in conjunction with medical, psychological, psychiatric, and social work disciplines, AA has produced a conceptualization of problem drinkers as inherently pathological individuals - alcoholics - and a corresponding regulatory regime to treat this pathology. The recovery program of AA is therefore examined as a bifurcated technology of governmentality, comprised of disciplinary and self-governing techniques.Arts, Faculty ofSociology, Department ofGraduat