Social Lives
Author: A. Jamie Saris, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute member, Maynooth University
A former student of mine (who has struggled with opiate use and misuse during much of their adult life) recently contacted me for a reference. As I have worked ethnographically with heroin users for many years, and I have written extensively on “addiction” as a concept, I have occasionally been approached by students who have experienced some of the situations that I have written about – from the regulation of time imposed by regular ingestion of a Heroin substitute through the experience of regular use of illegal drugs (especially Heroin) spiralling out of control into increasing risk-taking and subsequent legal jeopardy and health dangers. Thus, over the years, this student and I have had several conversations around their ideas of “addiction” and “recovery” in relation to my work and theorizing.
Continue reading “On Function, Restoration, and Recovery”