Darin Weinberg
2020
Weinberg, Darin
Freedom and addiction in four discursive registers: A comparative historical study of values in addiction science Journal Article
In: History of the Human Sciences, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 25-48, 2020, ISBN: 095269512094596.
@article{Weinberg2020,
title = {Freedom and addiction in four discursive registers: A comparative historical study of values in addiction science},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1177/0952695120945962},
isbn = {095269512094596},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-09-22},
urldate = {2020-09-22},
journal = {History of the Human Sciences},
volume = {34},
number = {5},
pages = {25-48},
abstract = {Mainstream addiction science is today widely marked by an antinomy between a neurologically determinist understanding of the human brain ‘hijacked’ by the biochemical allure of intoxicants and a liberal voluntarist conception of drug use as a free exercise of choice. Prominent defenders of both discourses strive, ultimately without complete success, to provide accounts that are both universal and value-neutral. This has resulted in a variety of conceptual problems and has undermined the utility of such research for those who seek to therapeutically care for people presumed to suffer from addictions. This article contrasts these two contemporary discourses to two others that played vital historical roles in initiating both scientific and popular concern for addiction. These are the Puritan and civic republican discourses that dominated scholarly discussions of addiction in the early modern era. In each case, the place of values in these discussions is highlighted. By comparing them to their early modern historical antecedents, this article seeks to reflexively explore and develop more intellectually sound and therapeutically relevant alternatives to the troubled attempts at universality and value-neutrality now fettering debates in mainstream addiction science.
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Mainstream addiction science is today widely marked by an antinomy between a neurologically determinist understanding of the human brain ‘hijacked’ by the biochemical allure of intoxicants and a liberal voluntarist conception of drug use as a free exercise of choice. Prominent defenders of both discourses strive, ultimately without complete success, to provide accounts that are both universal and value-neutral. This has resulted in a variety of conceptual problems and has undermined the utility of such research for those who seek to therapeutically care for people presumed to suffer from addictions. This article contrasts these two contemporary discourses to two others that played vital historical roles in initiating both scientific and popular concern for addiction. These are the Puritan and civic republican discourses that dominated scholarly discussions of addiction in the early modern era. In each case, the place of values in these discussions is highlighted. By comparing them to their early modern historical antecedents, this article seeks to reflexively explore and develop more intellectually sound and therapeutically relevant alternatives to the troubled attempts at universality and value-neutrality now fettering debates in mainstream addiction science.
Weinberg, Darin
Diagnosis as Topic and as Resource: Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease in Medical Sociology Journal Article
In: Symbolic Interaction, vol. 44, no. 5, 2020.
@article{Weinberg2020b,
title = {Diagnosis as Topic and as Resource: Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease in Medical Sociology},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1002/symb.504},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-08-10},
urldate = {2020-08-10},
journal = {Symbolic Interaction},
volume = {44},
number = {5},
abstract = {This article notes an enduring ambivalence in medical sociology concerning the epistemology and ontology of disease and shows this is precisely an ambivalence concerning whether biomedical disease categories are best understood as topics of, or as resources for, medical sociological research. The first section critically reviews the topic/resource debate in ethnomethodology. The second section elaborates upon the pertinence of this debate to sociological debates directly concerned with the epistemology and ontology of disease. The article concludes by demonstrating how framing the epistemology and ontology of disease in terms of the topics and resources of medical sociological analysis serves to clarify the work of thinking sociologically about disease and helps overcome protracted theoretical challenges that have persistently troubled medical sociological research.},
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This article notes an enduring ambivalence in medical sociology concerning the epistemology and ontology of disease and shows this is precisely an ambivalence concerning whether biomedical disease categories are best understood as topics of, or as resources for, medical sociological research. The first section critically reviews the topic/resource debate in ethnomethodology. The second section elaborates upon the pertinence of this debate to sociological debates directly concerned with the epistemology and ontology of disease. The article concludes by demonstrating how framing the epistemology and ontology of disease in terms of the topics and resources of medical sociological analysis serves to clarify the work of thinking sociologically about disease and helps overcome protracted theoretical challenges that have persistently troubled medical sociological research.
2019
Weinberg, Darin
Psychosomatic subjects and the agencies of addiction Journal Article
In: Medical Humanities, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 162-168, 2019.
@article{Weinberg2019,
title = {Psychosomatic subjects and the agencies of addiction},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1136/medhum-2018-011582},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-06-01},
urldate = {2019-06-01},
journal = {Medical Humanities},
volume = {42},
number = {2},
pages = {162-168},
abstract = {Addiction science and public policy have for some time been articulated in conformity with a broader antinomy in Western thought between biological reductionism and liberal voluntarism. Hence, mainstream debates have concerned whether and how addiction might be understood as a disease in the biomedically orthodox sense of anatomical or physiological pathology or whether and how addiction might be understood as a voluntary choice of some kind. The fact that those who staff these debates have appeared either unable or unwilling to consider alternatives to this antinomy has resulted in a rather unhappy and intransigent set of intellectual anomalies both on the biomedical and the social scientific sides of this divide. Perhaps more importantly, it has also resulted in a striking isolation of scientific debates themselves from the vicissitudes of therapeutically caring for those putatively suffering from addictions both within and outside clinical settings. After briefly demonstrating the conformity of debates in addiction science with the broader antinomy between biological reductionism and liberal voluntarism and the anomalies that thereby result, this article considers the scientific and therapeutic benefits of a psychosomatic framework for the understanding of both self-governing subjects and the experience of a loss of self-control to agencies of addiction.},
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Addiction science and public policy have for some time been articulated in conformity with a broader antinomy in Western thought between biological reductionism and liberal voluntarism. Hence, mainstream debates have concerned whether and how addiction might be understood as a disease in the biomedically orthodox sense of anatomical or physiological pathology or whether and how addiction might be understood as a voluntary choice of some kind. The fact that those who staff these debates have appeared either unable or unwilling to consider alternatives to this antinomy has resulted in a rather unhappy and intransigent set of intellectual anomalies both on the biomedical and the social scientific sides of this divide. Perhaps more importantly, it has also resulted in a striking isolation of scientific debates themselves from the vicissitudes of therapeutically caring for those putatively suffering from addictions both within and outside clinical settings. After briefly demonstrating the conformity of debates in addiction science with the broader antinomy between biological reductionism and liberal voluntarism and the anomalies that thereby result, this article considers the scientific and therapeutic benefits of a psychosomatic framework for the understanding of both self-governing subjects and the experience of a loss of self-control to agencies of addiction.
2014
Weinberg, Darin
Praxis, Interaction and the Loss of Self-Control Book Chapter
In: pp. 232 - 244, Routledge, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-137-00834-3.
@inbook{Weinberg2014b,
title = {Praxis, Interaction and the Loss of Self-Control},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1057/9781137008336_12},
isbn = {978-1-137-00834-3},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-12-09},
urldate = {2014-12-09},
pages = { 232 - 244},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {Our remit in this section of the book is to speak to the relevance of self to our understanding of intoxication and intoxicant use. In her chapter, Cathy Shrank looks at the images and explanations of the loss of self-possession pertaining to intoxicants in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century medical, poetic and political texts. Ciaran Regan, in his chapter, tells of the neurological plasticity of the human brain, our neurological distinctiveness as individuals and the relation of these phenomena to intoxication. For my part, I want to focus on the self as social agent or as active participant in social interaction and how addictions to intoxicants emerge in the course of social interaction as surrogates for that self. My argument is that by so doing, we may begin to address an element of addiction that, while central to the meaning of this concept, has proven equally elusive to both the biomedical and the social sciences of addiction. That is, the identification of instances in which people are empirically observed not only to have engaged in socially disapproved or even dangerous drug use but to have actually succumbed to addiction, or to have lost control of their drug use. Because it is in and through social interaction with one another, rather than esoteric analyses of our minds or bodies, that evidence of addiction is normally gathered, a systematic understanding of what counts as interactional evidence of addiction should be a particularly important scientific priority.
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Our remit in this section of the book is to speak to the relevance of self to our understanding of intoxication and intoxicant use. In her chapter, Cathy Shrank looks at the images and explanations of the loss of self-possession pertaining to intoxicants in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century medical, poetic and political texts. Ciaran Regan, in his chapter, tells of the neurological plasticity of the human brain, our neurological distinctiveness as individuals and the relation of these phenomena to intoxication. For my part, I want to focus on the self as social agent or as active participant in social interaction and how addictions to intoxicants emerge in the course of social interaction as surrogates for that self. My argument is that by so doing, we may begin to address an element of addiction that, while central to the meaning of this concept, has proven equally elusive to both the biomedical and the social sciences of addiction. That is, the identification of instances in which people are empirically observed not only to have engaged in socially disapproved or even dangerous drug use but to have actually succumbed to addiction, or to have lost control of their drug use. Because it is in and through social interaction with one another, rather than esoteric analyses of our minds or bodies, that evidence of addiction is normally gathered, a systematic understanding of what counts as interactional evidence of addiction should be a particularly important scientific priority.
Weinberg, Darin
Contemporary social constructionism: Key themes Book
Temple University Press, 2014.
@book{Weinberg2014,
title = {Contemporary social constructionism: Key themes},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
urldate = {2014-01-01},
publisher = {Temple University Press},
abstract = {In Contemporary Social Constructionism, Darin Weinberg provides a detailed, critical overview of the key themes of this school of thought, which explains how phenomena and ways of thinking develop in their social contexts. Weinberg traces the multiple roots of social constructionism, and shows how it has been used, critiqued, and refined within the social and human sciences. Contemporary Social Constructionism illuminates how constructionist social science developed in relation to positivism, critical and hermeneutic philosophy, and feminism and then goes on to distinguish the concept from postmodernism and deconstructionism. In addition, Weinberg shows how social constructionists have contributed to our understanding of biology, the body, self-knowledge, and social problems. The result is a contemporary statement of social constructionism that shores up its scientific veracity and demonstrates its analytic power, promise, and influence. The book concludes with a look toward the future of the concept and its use.},
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In Contemporary Social Constructionism, Darin Weinberg provides a detailed, critical overview of the key themes of this school of thought, which explains how phenomena and ways of thinking develop in their social contexts. Weinberg traces the multiple roots of social constructionism, and shows how it has been used, critiqued, and refined within the social and human sciences. Contemporary Social Constructionism illuminates how constructionist social science developed in relation to positivism, critical and hermeneutic philosophy, and feminism and then goes on to distinguish the concept from postmodernism and deconstructionism. In addition, Weinberg shows how social constructionists have contributed to our understanding of biology, the body, self-knowledge, and social problems. The result is a contemporary statement of social constructionism that shores up its scientific veracity and demonstrates its analytic power, promise, and influence. The book concludes with a look toward the future of the concept and its use.
2013
Weinberg, Darin
Post-humanism, addiction and the loss of self-control: Reflections on the missing core in addiction science Journal Article
In: The International journal on drug policy, vol. 24, no. 3, 2013.
@article{Weinberg2013,
title = {Post-humanism, addiction and the loss of self-control: Reflections on the missing core in addiction science},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1016/j.drugpo.2013.01.009},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-02-25},
urldate = {2013-02-25},
journal = {The International journal on drug policy},
volume = {24},
number = {3},
abstract = {The core criterion of addiction is the loss of self control. Ironically enough, however, neither the social nor the biomedical sciences of addiction have so far made any measurable headway in linking drug use to a loss of self control. In this essay I begin by demonstrating the limitations in this regard suffered by the social and bio-medical sciences. Whereas the social sciences have variously reduced addicted drug use to deviant, but nonetheless self-governed, behaviour or discourses thereof, the bio-medical sciences have completely failed to adequately specify, let alone empirically analyse, how we might distinguish addicted from self-governed behaviour. I then show how these limitations can be very easily overcome by the adoption of a post-humanist perspective on self control and the various afflictions, including addiction, to which it is regarded heir. This argument provides occasion to acquaint readers with post-humanist scholarship concerning a spectrum of relevant topics including the human body, disease, drug use and therapeutic intervention and to show how these lines of investigation can be combined to provide an innovative, theoretically robust and practically valuable method for advancing the scientific study of addiction specifically as the loss of self control. The essay concludes with a discussion of some of the more important ramifications that follow from the adoption of this post-humanist approach for drug policy studies.},
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The core criterion of addiction is the loss of self control. Ironically enough, however, neither the social nor the biomedical sciences of addiction have so far made any measurable headway in linking drug use to a loss of self control. In this essay I begin by demonstrating the limitations in this regard suffered by the social and bio-medical sciences. Whereas the social sciences have variously reduced addicted drug use to deviant, but nonetheless self-governed, behaviour or discourses thereof, the bio-medical sciences have completely failed to adequately specify, let alone empirically analyse, how we might distinguish addicted from self-governed behaviour. I then show how these limitations can be very easily overcome by the adoption of a post-humanist perspective on self control and the various afflictions, including addiction, to which it is regarded heir. This argument provides occasion to acquaint readers with post-humanist scholarship concerning a spectrum of relevant topics including the human body, disease, drug use and therapeutic intervention and to show how these lines of investigation can be combined to provide an innovative, theoretically robust and practically valuable method for advancing the scientific study of addiction specifically as the loss of self control. The essay concludes with a discussion of some of the more important ramifications that follow from the adoption of this post-humanist approach for drug policy studies.
Weinberg, Darin; Herring, Jonathan; Regan, Ciaran; Withington, Phil
Starting the Conversation Book Chapter
In: pp. 1-30, Macmillan Education UK, 2013, ISBN: 978-1-137-00834-3.
@inbook{Weinberg2013b,
title = {Starting the Conversation},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Jonathan Herring and Ciaran Regan and Phil Withington},
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isbn = {978-1-137-00834-3},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
urldate = {2013-01-01},
pages = {1-30},
publisher = {Macmillan Education UK},
abstract = {Substances that alter the mental and physiological state of the person — here termed intoxicants — are a modern obsession. Debates over licensing and ‘binge drinking’; the categorization and policing of ‘addictive’ substances; the rights and wrongs of smoking in ‘public’ places; the relationship between intoxicants and notions of the self; the aesthetic and symbolic significance of intoxicants: all testify to the central place of intoxicants in contemporary society. They also demonstrate that the problem of intoxication transcends the boundaries of any single academic discipline. It is trans-historical and trans-cultural and also traverses the divide between the natural and social sciences since the physical characteristics and effects of intoxicants only take on significance within particular social contexts. For example, modern concepts of ‘addiction’ depend as much on medical and legal discourses as on a substance’s molecular structure; ‘taste’ is something learnt, practised and displayed as well as biologically embedded; and the meaning and significance of substances are always representational as well as innate. Likewise, the peculiar relationship between intoxicants and medicine clearly illustrates how the history of medicine is integral to the history of societies (and vice versa). New intoxicants commonly derive their initial legitimacy from medical theory and practice. This was true for tobacco in the sixteenth century and cocaine in the nineteenth century.},
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Substances that alter the mental and physiological state of the person — here termed intoxicants — are a modern obsession. Debates over licensing and ‘binge drinking’; the categorization and policing of ‘addictive’ substances; the rights and wrongs of smoking in ‘public’ places; the relationship between intoxicants and notions of the self; the aesthetic and symbolic significance of intoxicants: all testify to the central place of intoxicants in contemporary society. They also demonstrate that the problem of intoxication transcends the boundaries of any single academic discipline. It is trans-historical and trans-cultural and also traverses the divide between the natural and social sciences since the physical characteristics and effects of intoxicants only take on significance within particular social contexts. For example, modern concepts of ‘addiction’ depend as much on medical and legal discourses as on a substance’s molecular structure; ‘taste’ is something learnt, practised and displayed as well as biologically embedded; and the meaning and significance of substances are always representational as well as innate. Likewise, the peculiar relationship between intoxicants and medicine clearly illustrates how the history of medicine is integral to the history of societies (and vice versa). New intoxicants commonly derive their initial legitimacy from medical theory and practice. This was true for tobacco in the sixteenth century and cocaine in the nineteenth century.
2012
Weinberg, Darin
In Defense of Radical Constructionism Journal Article
In: Sociological Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 360-373, 2012.
@article{Weinberg2012,
title = {In Defense of Radical Constructionism},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.2307/41679724},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-06-01},
urldate = {2012-06-01},
journal = {Sociological Quarterly},
volume = {53},
number = {3},
pages = {360-373},
abstract = {With his essay "The Limits of the Discursive," Wing-Chung Ho has provided us an occasion to reflect on the state of the art in social constructionist social science. He has done so by taking issue with what he considers some ubiquitous tendencies in what he calls radical constructionism. According to Ho, radical constructionism understands "social realities as constructed and reproduced through situated, articulatory practices rather than objective structures" (p. 321). It claims "that social reality is constituted more by the actor's usage of discourse than shaped by the social structure which is said to be fixed and static" (p. 322). Following von Glasersfeld (1984), Ho characterizes radical constructionism as a theoretical approach that insists "knowledge does not reflect an 'objective' ontological reality, but is exclusively an ordering and organization of a world constituted by our experience" (p. 322). As a result of these theoretical commitments, discursive practice "becomes an essential concept inherent in the creation of knowledge" (p. 322). He also makes a series of subsidiary claims regarding radical constructionism that I will take up in the body of this essay. While Ho is concerned to critique a much broader collection of authors, his focus is primarily trained on the collaborative work of Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein, two leading figures in the constructionist canon. In this commentary, I endorse Ho's insistence that discursive practice cannot be adequately understood in isolation from what he calls the "pre-predicative structure of the lifeworld" (p. 323), but also point out several problems in his argument, including his mistaken claim that Gubrium and Holstein do so isolate discursive practice.
},
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With his essay "The Limits of the Discursive," Wing-Chung Ho has provided us an occasion to reflect on the state of the art in social constructionist social science. He has done so by taking issue with what he considers some ubiquitous tendencies in what he calls radical constructionism. According to Ho, radical constructionism understands "social realities as constructed and reproduced through situated, articulatory practices rather than objective structures" (p. 321). It claims "that social reality is constituted more by the actor's usage of discourse than shaped by the social structure which is said to be fixed and static" (p. 322). Following von Glasersfeld (1984), Ho characterizes radical constructionism as a theoretical approach that insists "knowledge does not reflect an 'objective' ontological reality, but is exclusively an ordering and organization of a world constituted by our experience" (p. 322). As a result of these theoretical commitments, discursive practice "becomes an essential concept inherent in the creation of knowledge" (p. 322). He also makes a series of subsidiary claims regarding radical constructionism that I will take up in the body of this essay. While Ho is concerned to critique a much broader collection of authors, his focus is primarily trained on the collaborative work of Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein, two leading figures in the constructionist canon. In this commentary, I endorse Ho's insistence that discursive practice cannot be adequately understood in isolation from what he calls the "pre-predicative structure of the lifeworld" (p. 323), but also point out several problems in his argument, including his mistaken claim that Gubrium and Holstein do so isolate discursive practice.
Weinberg, Darin
The Social Construction of Self Knowledge: A Commentary on the Legacy of Melvin Pollner Journal Article
In: The American Sociologist, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 76-84, 2012.
@article{Weinberg2012b,
title = {The Social Construction of Self Knowledge: A Commentary on the Legacy of Melvin Pollner},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1007/s12108-011-9142-1},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-03-01},
urldate = {2012-03-01},
journal = {The American Sociologist},
volume = {43},
number = {1},
pages = {76-84},
abstract = {Like other approaches in the social sciences, social constructionist studies have too often construed the self as some manner of mental image, or representation, we privately carry of our own identity. While socially shaped, this image is understood as an essentially personal possession about which its possessor can legitimately claim a categorically privileged form of knowledge. This residual commitment to theoretically privileging the first person perspective on the self inhibits our appreciation for the extent to which the validity of self-knowledge is a dynamic and ongoing collective accomplishment rather than a strictly private personal assessment. This essay briefly reviews a selection of canonical contributions to the social constructionist literature on the self, demonstrating specifically how they theoretically privilege the first person perspective. It then demonstrates how the work of Melvin Pollner provides conceptual resources for effectively overcoming this unfortunate tendency. KeywordsSelf-knowledge–Social Constructionism–Pollner–Self-understanding–First-person.},
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Like other approaches in the social sciences, social constructionist studies have too often construed the self as some manner of mental image, or representation, we privately carry of our own identity. While socially shaped, this image is understood as an essentially personal possession about which its possessor can legitimately claim a categorically privileged form of knowledge. This residual commitment to theoretically privileging the first person perspective on the self inhibits our appreciation for the extent to which the validity of self-knowledge is a dynamic and ongoing collective accomplishment rather than a strictly private personal assessment. This essay briefly reviews a selection of canonical contributions to the social constructionist literature on the self, demonstrating specifically how they theoretically privilege the first person perspective. It then demonstrates how the work of Melvin Pollner provides conceptual resources for effectively overcoming this unfortunate tendency. KeywordsSelf-knowledge–Social Constructionism–Pollner–Self-understanding–First-person.
Weinberg, Darin; Rosenfeld, Dana
Domestic practice, situated contingency and adherence to medical directives: A call for research Journal Article
In: Social Theory & Health, vol. 10, no. 1, 2012.
@article{Weinberg2012c,
title = {Domestic practice, situated contingency and adherence to medical directives: A call for research},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Dana Rosenfeld},
doi = {10.1057/sth.2011.9},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-02-01},
journal = {Social Theory & Health},
volume = {10},
number = {1},
abstract = {Despite medical sociology's long-standing concern with the relationship between clinical and domestic spheres, studies of adherence have generally approached the disparity between medically prescribed treatment regimens and patients' behavior as products of patients' thoughts and beliefs regarding prescribed regimens. These studies overlook the extent to which these thoughts and beliefs are dictated by the situated and contingent dynamics of patients' lives rather than conceptual reflection alone. Drawing on Bourdieuian, ethnomethodological and other qualitative studies of both health practices and domestic routines, this article problematizes the tendency in adherence research to neglect the contours and rhythms of situated domestic practices and argues for their analytic inclusion in adherence studies. We conclude by suggesting that these dimensions of domestic life can be best captured by ethnographic methods, specifically, observation and interviews, which are designed to highlight both situated practice in social context and the subjective meanings that actors attach to it.},
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Despite medical sociology's long-standing concern with the relationship between clinical and domestic spheres, studies of adherence have generally approached the disparity between medically prescribed treatment regimens and patients' behavior as products of patients' thoughts and beliefs regarding prescribed regimens. These studies overlook the extent to which these thoughts and beliefs are dictated by the situated and contingent dynamics of patients' lives rather than conceptual reflection alone. Drawing on Bourdieuian, ethnomethodological and other qualitative studies of both health practices and domestic routines, this article problematizes the tendency in adherence research to neglect the contours and rhythms of situated domestic practices and argues for their analytic inclusion in adherence studies. We conclude by suggesting that these dimensions of domestic life can be best captured by ethnographic methods, specifically, observation and interviews, which are designed to highlight both situated practice in social context and the subjective meanings that actors attach to it.
2011
Weinberg, Darin
Sociological Perspectives on Addiction Journal Article
In: Sociology Compass, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 298 - 310, 2011.
@article{Weinberg2011,
title = {Sociological Perspectives on Addiction},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00363.x},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-04-03},
urldate = {2011-04-03},
journal = {Sociology Compass},
volume = {5},
number = {4},
pages = {298 - 310},
abstract = {This article provides a critical survey of sociological research on addiction. It begins with the seminal research of Alfred Lindesmith on heroin addiction then proceeds through discussions of functionalist contributions, research that exemplifies what David Matza called the ‘appreciative’ turn in the sociology of deviance, rational choice theories, and social constructionist approaches. It is confined to research on addiction in its original meaning as putative enslavement to a substance or activity rather than merely deviant or disapproved activity more broadly. As will be seen, though, there is a ubiquitous and theoretically interesting tendency even among those who contend to be writing about addiction as such to slip into modes of analysis that effectively substitute questions regarding the social approval of an activity for questions concerning whether it is voluntary or involuntary. Hence, one purpose of this article is to explore whether, and how, this slippage might be avoided.},
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This article provides a critical survey of sociological research on addiction. It begins with the seminal research of Alfred Lindesmith on heroin addiction then proceeds through discussions of functionalist contributions, research that exemplifies what David Matza called the ‘appreciative’ turn in the sociology of deviance, rational choice theories, and social constructionist approaches. It is confined to research on addiction in its original meaning as putative enslavement to a substance or activity rather than merely deviant or disapproved activity more broadly. As will be seen, though, there is a ubiquitous and theoretically interesting tendency even among those who contend to be writing about addiction as such to slip into modes of analysis that effectively substitute questions regarding the social approval of an activity for questions concerning whether it is voluntary or involuntary. Hence, one purpose of this article is to explore whether, and how, this slippage might be avoided.
2009
Weinberg, Darin
On the Social Construction of Social Problems and Social Problems Theory: A Contribution to the Legacy of John Kitsuse Journal Article
In: The American Sociologist, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 61-78, 2009.
@article{Weinberg2009,
title = {On the Social Construction of Social Problems and Social Problems Theory: A Contribution to the Legacy of John Kitsuse},
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year = {2009},
date = {2009-05-01},
urldate = {2009-05-01},
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Weinberg, Darin
The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory Book Chapter
In: Chapter 14, pp. 281 - 299, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, ISBN: 9781405169004.
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2008
Weinberg, Darin
The Body in Question: A SocioCultural Approach Journal Article
In: Contemporary Sociology, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 365-366, 2008.
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title = {The Body in Question: A SocioCultural Approach},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1177/009430610803700442},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-07-01},
urldate = {2008-07-01},
journal = {Contemporary Sociology},
volume = {37},
number = {4},
pages = {365-366},
abstract = {The book also pays considerable attention to some of the latest theoretical and technological developments within biomedicine itself (eg, genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research) and to the effects they have had upon both wider popular cultural understandings of the body and the range of techniques available in modern societies to modify and regulate our bodies.},
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The book also pays considerable attention to some of the latest theoretical and technological developments within biomedicine itself (eg, genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research) and to the effects they have had upon both wider popular cultural understandings of the body and the range of techniques available in modern societies to modify and regulate our bodies.
Weinberg, Darin
Hacia un entendimiento post-humanista de la adicción Journal Article
In: Politica y Sociedad, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 159-175, 2008.
@article{Weinberg2008b,
title = {Hacia un entendimiento post-humanista de la adicción},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
urldate = {2008-01-01},
journal = {Politica y Sociedad},
volume = {45},
number = {3},
pages = {159-175},
abstract = {Este ensayo evalúa críticamente aquellas aproximaciones biológicas que han considerado la adicción como una enfermedad cerebral y aquellas otras que, partiendo del construccionismo social, han considerado la adicción como una simple etiqueta, un mito o una narrativa. El ensayo argumenta que ambas aproximaciones tienen serias limitaciones. En particular, argumenta que ninguna de estas dos aproximaciones nos permite dirimir si el tratamiento clínico de la adicción es empoderador o represivo para aquellos que se someten a él. Basándose en datos etnográficos recogidos en tres clínicas, el artículo demuestra que las adicciones adoptan la forma de agentes nohumanos encarnados. El artículo argumenta que una aproximación posthumanista es la mejor forma de entender la relación entre el self y la adicción y, por ello, la mejor herramienta para discernir en qué casos el tratamiento de la adicción es empoderador o represivo.},
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Este ensayo evalúa críticamente aquellas aproximaciones biológicas que han considerado la adicción como una enfermedad cerebral y aquellas otras que, partiendo del construccionismo social, han considerado la adicción como una simple etiqueta, un mito o una narrativa. El ensayo argumenta que ambas aproximaciones tienen serias limitaciones. En particular, argumenta que ninguna de estas dos aproximaciones nos permite dirimir si el tratamiento clínico de la adicción es empoderador o represivo para aquellos que se someten a él. Basándose en datos etnográficos recogidos en tres clínicas, el artículo demuestra que las adicciones adoptan la forma de agentes nohumanos encarnados. El artículo argumenta que una aproximación posthumanista es la mejor forma de entender la relación entre el self y la adicción y, por ello, la mejor herramienta para discernir en qué casos el tratamiento de la adicción es empoderador o represivo.
2007
Weinberg, Darin; Redley, Marcus
Learning disability and the limits of liberal citizenship: Interactional impediments to political empowerment Journal Article
In: Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 767-786 , 2007.
@article{Weinberg2007,
title = {Learning disability and the limits of liberal citizenship: Interactional impediments to political empowerment},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Marcus Redley},
doi = {10.1111/j.1467-9566.2007.01015.x},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-08-01},
urldate = {2007-08-01},
journal = {Sociology of Health & Illness},
volume = {29},
number = {5},
pages = {767-786 },
abstract = {Recent policy initiatives have moved decisively toward empowering learning disabled citizens, recognising ability over disability, and promoting people's political empowerment and voice in the design of public services. While laudable and encouraging, these initiatives raise an important question: to what extent can a group of service users, whose very entitlement to state-sponsored assistance is justified by putative intellectual impairment, be empowered according to an exclusively liberal model of citizenship that presumes and requires, as its very defining features, intellectual ability and independence? In this paper we consider this question by means of an ethnographic analysis of an innovative advocacy group: the Parliament for People with Learning Disabilities (PPLD). We first document both an institutional and an interactional preference for clients to speak actively for themselves. We then describe three types of interactional trouble that emerged in the PPLD as obstacles to realising this preference in practice and the strikingly similar remedies that were generated to overcome these troubles. We conclude by discussing the limits of an approach to empowering learning disabled individuals that is cast too exclusively in terms drawn from liberal models of citizenship that prioritise voice over care, security, and wellbeing.},
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Recent policy initiatives have moved decisively toward empowering learning disabled citizens, recognising ability over disability, and promoting people's political empowerment and voice in the design of public services. While laudable and encouraging, these initiatives raise an important question: to what extent can a group of service users, whose very entitlement to state-sponsored assistance is justified by putative intellectual impairment, be empowered according to an exclusively liberal model of citizenship that presumes and requires, as its very defining features, intellectual ability and independence? In this paper we consider this question by means of an ethnographic analysis of an innovative advocacy group: the Parliament for People with Learning Disabilities (PPLD). We first document both an institutional and an interactional preference for clients to speak actively for themselves. We then describe three types of interactional trouble that emerged in the PPLD as obstacles to realising this preference in practice and the strikingly similar remedies that were generated to overcome these troubles. We conclude by discussing the limits of an approach to empowering learning disabled individuals that is cast too exclusively in terms drawn from liberal models of citizenship that prioritise voice over care, security, and wellbeing.
Weinberg, Darin
Habermas, Rights, and the Learning Disabled Citizen Journal Article
In: Social Theory & Health, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 70-87, 2007.
@article{Weinberg2007b,
title = {Habermas, Rights, and the Learning Disabled Citizen},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700087},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-02-01},
urldate = {2007-02-01},
journal = {Social Theory & Health},
volume = {5},
number = {1},
pages = {70-87},
abstract = {For at least the last three decades or so the hegemony of scientific knowledge and technological expertise has been subject to sustained critique in the domains of health and social services. Expert sources of policy legitimation are increasingly challenged by more thoroughly democratic and consensus-based orientations to the legitimation of public programmes. This phenomenon is not confined to practical politics but is increasingly evident in the domain of political theory as well. While this trend in political theory is laudable in many respects, it introduces quite serious and troubling theoretical questions regarding the rights of citizens with learning disabilities who may be intellectually ill-equipped to participate in the deliberative public sphere. In this essay, I critically assess the work of Jurgen Habermas, one of the world's most sophisticated proponents of deliberative democracy, in order to highlight the theoretical problems learning disability poses for his political theory. I conclude with a brief sketch of what empirical research might contribute to a more satisfying approach to understanding the rights of learning disabled citizens.},
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For at least the last three decades or so the hegemony of scientific knowledge and technological expertise has been subject to sustained critique in the domains of health and social services. Expert sources of policy legitimation are increasingly challenged by more thoroughly democratic and consensus-based orientations to the legitimation of public programmes. This phenomenon is not confined to practical politics but is increasingly evident in the domain of political theory as well. While this trend in political theory is laudable in many respects, it introduces quite serious and troubling theoretical questions regarding the rights of citizens with learning disabilities who may be intellectually ill-equipped to participate in the deliberative public sphere. In this essay, I critically assess the work of Jurgen Habermas, one of the world's most sophisticated proponents of deliberative democracy, in order to highlight the theoretical problems learning disability poses for his political theory. I conclude with a brief sketch of what empirical research might contribute to a more satisfying approach to understanding the rights of learning disabled citizens.
2006
Weinberg, Darin; Drew, Paul Ed; Raymond, Geoffrey Ed
Talk and interaction in social research methods Book
Sage, 2006, ISBN: 0761957057.
@book{Weinberg2006,
title = {Talk and interaction in social research methods},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Paul Ed Drew and Geoffrey Ed Raymond},
isbn = {0761957057},
year = {2006},
date = {2006-01-01},
urldate = {2006-01-01},
publisher = {Sage},
abstract = {Talk and Interaction in Social Research Methods is a much-needed methods text. Focusing on research methods in action, the volume offers a new way of viewing the realities of social research. By taking language use seriously, the text reveals the details and depths of a wide range of research projects as they have seldom been presented before. This is the first book of its kind to offer such a powerful and insightful depiction of the role of talk-in-interaction in relation to social research methods. The editors represent the very best from multiple traditions of researching talk-in-interaction--from both sides of the Atlantic. The chapters are written by a sterling collection of researchers--a virtual honor roll of conversation analysts and kindred spirits. This book is for social researchers of all disciplines who are interested in social interaction; graduate students being introduced to qualitative methods.},
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Talk and Interaction in Social Research Methods is a much-needed methods text. Focusing on research methods in action, the volume offers a new way of viewing the realities of social research. By taking language use seriously, the text reveals the details and depths of a wide range of research projects as they have seldom been presented before. This is the first book of its kind to offer such a powerful and insightful depiction of the role of talk-in-interaction in relation to social research methods. The editors represent the very best from multiple traditions of researching talk-in-interaction--from both sides of the Atlantic. The chapters are written by a sterling collection of researchers--a virtual honor roll of conversation analysts and kindred spirits. This book is for social researchers of all disciplines who are interested in social interaction; graduate students being introduced to qualitative methods.
2005
Weinberg, Darin
Book Review: The Poverty of Relativism Journal Article
In: Journal of Classical Sociology, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 383-384, 2005.
@article{Weinberg2005,
title = {Book Review: The Poverty of Relativism},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1177/1468795X05057878},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-11-01},
urldate = {2005-11-01},
journal = {Journal of Classical Sociology},
volume = {5},
number = {3},
pages = {383-384},
abstract = {Book Review: The Poverty of Relativism - Darin Weinberg, 2005 Skip to main content Menus SAGE Journals Profile logged-in Search MENU Search search-icon Browse Resources Authors Librarians Editors Societies Advanced Search IN THIS JOURNAL Journal Home Browse Journal Current Issue OnlineFirst Accepted Manuscripts All Issues Free Sample Journal Info Journal Description Aims and Scope Editorial Board Submission Guidelines Abstracting/Indexing Reprints Journal Permissions Subscribe Recommend to Library Advertising & Promotion Stay Connected Email Alerts RSS Feed Feedback / Contact SAGE Submit Paper Advanced Search SAGE Journals Search search-icon Browse Resources Authors Librarians Editors Societies Advanced Search Sign In American Society of Law.},
keywords = {},
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tppubtype = {article}
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Book Review: The Poverty of Relativism - Darin Weinberg, 2005 Skip to main content Menus SAGE Journals Profile logged-in Search MENU Search search-icon Browse Resources Authors Librarians Editors Societies Advanced Search IN THIS JOURNAL Journal Home Browse Journal Current Issue OnlineFirst Accepted Manuscripts All Issues Free Sample Journal Info Journal Description Aims and Scope Editorial Board Submission Guidelines Abstracting/Indexing Reprints Journal Permissions Subscribe Recommend to Library Advertising & Promotion Stay Connected Email Alerts RSS Feed Feedback / Contact SAGE Submit Paper Advanced Search SAGE Journals Search search-icon Browse Resources Authors Librarians Editors Societies Advanced Search Sign In American Society of Law.
Weinberg, Darin
Of Others Inside: Insanity, Addiction And Belonging in America Book
Temple University Press, 2005.
@book{Weinberg2005b,
title = {Of Others Inside: Insanity, Addiction And Belonging in America},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-10-01},
urldate = {2005-10-01},
publisher = {Temple University Press},
abstract = {There is little doubt among scientists and the general public that homelessness, mental illness, and addiction are inter-related. In Of Others Inside, Darin Weinberg examines how these inter-relations have taken form in the United States. He links the establishment of these connections to the movement of mental health and addiction treatment from redemptive processes to punitive ones and back again, and explores the connection between social welfare, rehabilitation, and the criminal justice system. Seeking to offer a new sociological understanding of the relationship between social exclusion and mental disability, Of Others Inside considers the general social conditions of homelessness, poverty, and social marginality in the U.S. Weinberg also explores questions about American perceptions of these conditions, and examines in great detail the social reality of mental disability and drug addiction without reducing people's suffering to simple notions of biological fate or social disorder.},
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There is little doubt among scientists and the general public that homelessness, mental illness, and addiction are inter-related. In Of Others Inside, Darin Weinberg examines how these inter-relations have taken form in the United States. He links the establishment of these connections to the movement of mental health and addiction treatment from redemptive processes to punitive ones and back again, and explores the connection between social welfare, rehabilitation, and the criminal justice system. Seeking to offer a new sociological understanding of the relationship between social exclusion and mental disability, Of Others Inside considers the general social conditions of homelessness, poverty, and social marginality in the U.S. Weinberg also explores questions about American perceptions of these conditions, and examines in great detail the social reality of mental disability and drug addiction without reducing people's suffering to simple notions of biological fate or social disorder.
2002
Weinberg, Darin
On the Embodiment of Addiction Journal Article
In: Body and Society, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 1-19, 2002.
@article{Weinberg2002,
title = {On the Embodiment of Addiction},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1177/1357034X02008004001},
year = {2002},
date = {2002-12-01},
urldate = {2002-12-01},
journal = {Body and Society},
volume = {8},
number = {4},
pages = {1-19},
abstract = {In an effort to promote more theoretically incisive research regarding the specifically sociological aspects of addiction, this article critically discusses three prominent theoretical paradigms for the study of addiction - neurology, learning theory and symbolic interaction. Neurological theories and learning theories are found to inadequately provide for the role of culturally transmitted meanings in the addiction process. While symbolic interactionist theories have been centrally concerned with meaning, they have failed to theorize how issues of meaning might figure in the addict's inevitable subjective estrangement from his or her drug-related activities. This stems from their failure to appreciate the reality of non-symbolic meaning, or meaningful experience that manifests pre-reflectively, at the level of our immediate bodily encounter with reality. The article concludes by suggesting that sociological students of addiction adopt a more thoroughly praxiological orientation to meaningful experience, so as to overcome the analytic limitations inherent in the antinomy between biological reductionism and disembodied cognitivism.},
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In an effort to promote more theoretically incisive research regarding the specifically sociological aspects of addiction, this article critically discusses three prominent theoretical paradigms for the study of addiction - neurology, learning theory and symbolic interaction. Neurological theories and learning theories are found to inadequately provide for the role of culturally transmitted meanings in the addiction process. While symbolic interactionist theories have been centrally concerned with meaning, they have failed to theorize how issues of meaning might figure in the addict's inevitable subjective estrangement from his or her drug-related activities. This stems from their failure to appreciate the reality of non-symbolic meaning, or meaningful experience that manifests pre-reflectively, at the level of our immediate bodily encounter with reality. The article concludes by suggesting that sociological students of addiction adopt a more thoroughly praxiological orientation to meaningful experience, so as to overcome the analytic limitations inherent in the antinomy between biological reductionism and disembodied cognitivism.
Weinberg, Darin; Fondacaro, Mark
Concepts of Social Justice in Community Psychology: Toward a Social Ecological Epistemology Journal Article
In: American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 473-492, 2002.
@article{Weinberg2002b,
title = {Concepts of Social Justice in Community Psychology: Toward a Social Ecological Epistemology},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Mark Fondacaro},
doi = {10.1023/A:1015803817117},
year = {2002},
date = {2002-09-01},
urldate = {2002-09-01},
journal = {American Journal of Community Psychology},
volume = {30},
number = {4},
pages = {473-492},
abstract = {In this paper we address the pervasive tendency in community psychology to treat values like social justice only as general objectives rather than contested theoretical concepts possessing identifiable empirical content. First we discuss how distinctive concepts of social justice have figured in three major intellectual traditions within community psychology: (1) the prevention and health promotion tradition, (2) the empowerment tradition, and most recently, (3) the critical tradition. We point out the epistemological gains and limitations of these respective concepts and argue for greater sensitivity to the context dependency of normative concepts like social justice. More specifically, we point to a pressing need in community psychology for an epistemology that: (1) subsumes both descriptive and evaluative concepts, and (2) acknowledges its own embeddedness in history and culture without thereby reducing all knowledge claims to the status of ideology. Finally, we describe and demonstrate the promise of what we are calling a social ecological epistemology for fulfilling this need.},
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In this paper we address the pervasive tendency in community psychology to treat values like social justice only as general objectives rather than contested theoretical concepts possessing identifiable empirical content. First we discuss how distinctive concepts of social justice have figured in three major intellectual traditions within community psychology: (1) the prevention and health promotion tradition, (2) the empowerment tradition, and most recently, (3) the critical tradition. We point out the epistemological gains and limitations of these respective concepts and argue for greater sensitivity to the context dependency of normative concepts like social justice. More specifically, we point to a pressing need in community psychology for an epistemology that: (1) subsumes both descriptive and evaluative concepts, and (2) acknowledges its own embeddedness in history and culture without thereby reducing all knowledge claims to the status of ideology. Finally, we describe and demonstrate the promise of what we are calling a social ecological epistemology for fulfilling this need.
Weinberg, Darin
Qualitative Research Methods Book
Blackwell Publishing, 2002.
@book{Weinberg2002c,
title = {Qualitative Research Methods},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
year = {2002},
date = {2002-08-01},
urldate = {2002-08-01},
publisher = {Blackwell Publishing},
abstract = {This text is a collection of readings for students undertaking any kind of social science inquiry. Editor Darin Weinberg has selected articles first and foremost for their conceptual accessibility and provides editorial introductions for students being introduced to research methods for the first time. As a whole, the readings represent classic and contemporary scholarship in the field. Through this volume, students should become acquainted not only with the full range of contemporary qualitative research methods, but the location of these methods in wider scientific breakthroughs. This reading on qualitative methods provides a comprehensive overview that is both accessible and definitive.},
keywords = {},
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This text is a collection of readings for students undertaking any kind of social science inquiry. Editor Darin Weinberg has selected articles first and foremost for their conceptual accessibility and provides editorial introductions for students being introduced to research methods for the first time. As a whole, the readings represent classic and contemporary scholarship in the field. Through this volume, students should become acquainted not only with the full range of contemporary qualitative research methods, but the location of these methods in wider scientific breakthroughs. This reading on qualitative methods provides a comprehensive overview that is both accessible and definitive.
2000
Weinberg, Darin
"Out There": The Ecology of Addiction in Drug Abuse Treatment Discourse Journal Article
In: Social Problems, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 606-621, 2000.
@article{Weinberg2000,
title = {"Out There": The Ecology of Addiction in Drug Abuse Treatment Discourse},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1525/sp.2000.47.4.03x0310x},
year = {2000},
date = {2000-11-01},
urldate = {2000-11-01},
journal = {Social Problems},
volume = {47},
number = {4},
pages = {606-621},
abstract = {A growing trend in social research concerning illicit drug use has entailed suspending regard for conventional questions such as the etiology of drug problems and the outcomes achieved by assorted interventions in Savor of focusing analytic attention on how drug problems are socially constructed in and through human praxis. In this paper, I use a constructionist approach to demonstrate and explain endogenous accounts of what I am calling the ecology of addiction in drug abuse treatment discourse. These accounts posit a space "out there" marked by its degradation, dirtiness, solitude, and savagery which commonly tempts those who must live there to also behave amorally, licentiously, and/or savagely. I explain these accounts by showing their fundamental utility in light of specific conceptual putties that participants in drug abuse treatment discourse must inevitably solve. Namely, speaking in terms of this ecology of addiction provides participants with a compelling narrative means for reconciling the following two claims: 1) they are chronically prone to enslavement by their addictions, and 2) their addictions can be controlled through ongoing participation in a communal project of mutual help.},
keywords = {},
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A growing trend in social research concerning illicit drug use has entailed suspending regard for conventional questions such as the etiology of drug problems and the outcomes achieved by assorted interventions in Savor of focusing analytic attention on how drug problems are socially constructed in and through human praxis. In this paper, I use a constructionist approach to demonstrate and explain endogenous accounts of what I am calling the ecology of addiction in drug abuse treatment discourse. These accounts posit a space "out there" marked by its degradation, dirtiness, solitude, and savagery which commonly tempts those who must live there to also behave amorally, licentiously, and/or savagely. I explain these accounts by showing their fundamental utility in light of specific conceptual putties that participants in drug abuse treatment discourse must inevitably solve. Namely, speaking in terms of this ecology of addiction provides participants with a compelling narrative means for reconciling the following two claims: 1) they are chronically prone to enslavement by their addictions, and 2) their addictions can be controlled through ongoing participation in a communal project of mutual help.
1998
Weinberg, Darin
Praxis and Addiction: A Reply to Galliher Journal Article
In: Sociological Theory, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 207-208, 1998.
@article{Weinberg1998,
title = {Praxis and Addiction: A Reply to Galliher},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1111/0735-2751.00052},
year = {1998},
date = {1998-07-01},
urldate = {1998-07-01},
journal = {Sociological Theory},
volume = {16},
number = {2},
pages = {207-208},
abstract = {Galliher suggests my paper is guilty of four failings:(1) it is an" attack" on Alfred Lindesmith that is ideologically consistent with those mounted by Harry Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,(2) it misleadingly casts the" intimate relationship between physical reactions and human learning [in Lindesmith's theory of addiction] as a [mindbody] dualism,"(3) it ignores the" variable impact of drugs on the human actor depending on the cultural and symbolic context." and (4) it erroneously asserts that Lindesmith's commitment to the Blumerian position that" humans are... free from psychological determinism" is theoretically irreconcilable with Lindesmith's policy position that addicts' actions and interpretations are beyond their control. Let me rebut each of these claims in turn. Harry Anslinger was an early and active proponent of a federal war on drugs, and his attacks on Lindesmith were based on his commitment to prosecuting drug users as criminals rather than providing addicts with therapy. My article does not even vaguely imply an endorsement of this policy or the federal war on drugs. As did Lindesmith in his day, I abhor the prosecutorial frenzy embodied in the war on drugs and its transparently repressive, racist, and classist consequences. I favor socially sensitive modalities over strictly medical modalities of addiction treatment and feel that a praxiological understanding of human learning offers sounder theoretical grounding for such modalities than does Lindesmith's exclusively symbolic understanding of human learning. No doubt. Lindesmith's theory of addiction was a watershed achievement in American sociology.},
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Galliher suggests my paper is guilty of four failings:(1) it is an" attack" on Alfred Lindesmith that is ideologically consistent with those mounted by Harry Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,(2) it misleadingly casts the" intimate relationship between physical reactions and human learning [in Lindesmith's theory of addiction] as a [mindbody] dualism,"(3) it ignores the" variable impact of drugs on the human actor depending on the cultural and symbolic context." and (4) it erroneously asserts that Lindesmith's commitment to the Blumerian position that" humans are... free from psychological determinism" is theoretically irreconcilable with Lindesmith's policy position that addicts' actions and interpretations are beyond their control. Let me rebut each of these claims in turn. Harry Anslinger was an early and active proponent of a federal war on drugs, and his attacks on Lindesmith were based on his commitment to prosecuting drug users as criminals rather than providing addicts with therapy. My article does not even vaguely imply an endorsement of this policy or the federal war on drugs. As did Lindesmith in his day, I abhor the prosecutorial frenzy embodied in the war on drugs and its transparently repressive, racist, and classist consequences. I favor socially sensitive modalities over strictly medical modalities of addiction treatment and feel that a praxiological understanding of human learning offers sounder theoretical grounding for such modalities than does Lindesmith's exclusively symbolic understanding of human learning. No doubt. Lindesmith's theory of addiction was a watershed achievement in American sociology.
1997
Weinberg, Darin
Lindesmith on Addiction: A Critical History of a Classic Theory Journal Article
In: Sociological Theory, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 150 - 161, 1997.
@article{Weinberg1997,
title = {Lindesmith on Addiction: A Critical History of a Classic Theory},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1111/0735-2751.00029},
year = {1997},
date = {1997-07-01},
urldate = {1997-07-01},
journal = {Sociological Theory},
volume = {15},
number = {2},
pages = {150 - 161},
abstract = {The evolution of Alfred Lindesmith's classic theory of addiction is analyzed as a product of the particular intellectual currents and controversies in and for which it was developed. These include the conflicts that pitted qualitative against quantitative sociology; the fledgling discipline of sociology against medicine, psychiatry, and psychology; and advocates of therapy for addicts against those who would simply punish them. By casting the meaningful experience of drug effects exclusively in terms of symbolically mediated mental representations of brute physiological sensations, Lindesmith's theory posits an epistemologically untenable dualism between mental and bodily perception that unnecessarily limits the explanatory scope of sociological research. As an alternative to this dualism, a praxiological approach to the meaning of drug-induced behavior and experience is proposed.},
keywords = {},
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The evolution of Alfred Lindesmith's classic theory of addiction is analyzed as a product of the particular intellectual currents and controversies in and for which it was developed. These include the conflicts that pitted qualitative against quantitative sociology; the fledgling discipline of sociology against medicine, psychiatry, and psychology; and advocates of therapy for addicts against those who would simply punish them. By casting the meaningful experience of drug effects exclusively in terms of symbolically mediated mental representations of brute physiological sensations, Lindesmith's theory posits an epistemologically untenable dualism between mental and bodily perception that unnecessarily limits the explanatory scope of sociological research. As an alternative to this dualism, a praxiological approach to the meaning of drug-induced behavior and experience is proposed.
Weinberg, Darin
The Social Construction of Non-Human Agency: The Case of Mental Disorder Journal Article
In: Social Problems, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 217-234, 1997.
@article{Weinberg1997b,
title = {The Social Construction of Non-Human Agency: The Case of Mental Disorder},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1525/sp.1997.44.2.03x0223o},
year = {1997},
date = {1997-05-01},
urldate = {1997-05-01},
journal = {Social Problems},
volume = {44},
number = {2},
pages = {217-234},
abstract = {In diverse ways, constructionist studies demonstrate the profound relevance of social processes to the emergence and assessment of mental disorders in various organisational settings. However, there remains a curious silence in the constructionist literature regarding how menial disorders, once assembled as meaningful objects of discourse and practice, might come to exercise their own causal influences upon members' experiences and activities. In this paper, I draw upon the notion of social problems work to provide for the practical dynamics whereby members, in effect, animate the categorical objects that they presume to populate their worlds. More than enacting identifiable objects of social problems discourse, social problems work at times actually realizes these objects as causally influential non-human agents, such that one may find members interacting with these objects much as they do with one another in the ongoing production of local affairs. While the analysis presented in this paper concerns the social construction of mental disorders as causally influential non-human agents, it is intended as a case study of the more general phenomenon.},
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In diverse ways, constructionist studies demonstrate the profound relevance of social processes to the emergence and assessment of mental disorders in various organisational settings. However, there remains a curious silence in the constructionist literature regarding how menial disorders, once assembled as meaningful objects of discourse and practice, might come to exercise their own causal influences upon members' experiences and activities. In this paper, I draw upon the notion of social problems work to provide for the practical dynamics whereby members, in effect, animate the categorical objects that they presume to populate their worlds. More than enacting identifiable objects of social problems discourse, social problems work at times actually realizes these objects as causally influential non-human agents, such that one may find members interacting with these objects much as they do with one another in the ongoing production of local affairs. While the analysis presented in this paper concerns the social construction of mental disorders as causally influential non-human agents, it is intended as a case study of the more general phenomenon.
1996
Weinberg, Darin
The Enactment and Appraisal of Authenticity in a Skid Row Therapeutic Community Journal Article
In: Symbolic Interaction, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 137-162, 1996.
@article{Weinberg1996,
title = {The Enactment and Appraisal of Authenticity in a Skid Row Therapeutic Community},
author = {Darin Weinberg},
doi = {10.1525/si.1996.19.2.137},
year = {1996},
date = {1996-05-01},
urldate = {1996-05-01},
journal = {Symbolic Interaction},
volume = {19},
number = {2},
pages = {137-162},
abstract = {This article describes the enactment and appraisal of authenticity in a skid row therapeutic community for the treatment of substance problems. Commitment to recovery was a basic requirement of participation in treatment, but it was widely assumed among program participants that many of their peers merely feigned commitment to recovery in order to remain sheltered. As a result, the enactment and appraisal of authentic commitment to recovery became a central organizing feature of therapeutic practice in the program. I first describe how the program's demand that participants engage in authentic self-disclosure bore on the treatment experienced by homeless residents of skid row. I then outline local techniques employed by program members for enacting and appraising authentic commitment to recovery through progressive stages of the treatment process. I conclude with a discussion of how this analysis deepens our understanding of the enactment and appraisal of authenticity throughout social life and a critique of Hochschild's influential constructionist formulation of the relationship between emotion management and personal authenticity.},
keywords = {},
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tppubtype = {article}
}
This article describes the enactment and appraisal of authenticity in a skid row therapeutic community for the treatment of substance problems. Commitment to recovery was a basic requirement of participation in treatment, but it was widely assumed among program participants that many of their peers merely feigned commitment to recovery in order to remain sheltered. As a result, the enactment and appraisal of authentic commitment to recovery became a central organizing feature of therapeutic practice in the program. I first describe how the program's demand that participants engage in authentic self-disclosure bore on the treatment experienced by homeless residents of skid row. I then outline local techniques employed by program members for enacting and appraising authentic commitment to recovery through progressive stages of the treatment process. I conclude with a discussion of how this analysis deepens our understanding of the enactment and appraisal of authenticity throughout social life and a critique of Hochschild's influential constructionist formulation of the relationship between emotion management and personal authenticity.
Weinberg, Darin; Koegel, Paul
Social model treatment and individuals with dual diagnoses: An ethnographic analysis of therapeutic practice Journal Article
In: The Journal of Mental Health Administration, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 272-287, 1996.
@article{Weinberg1996b,
title = {Social model treatment and individuals with dual diagnoses: An ethnographic analysis of therapeutic practice},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Paul Koegel},
doi = {10.1007/BF02522302},
year = {1996},
date = {1996-02-01},
urldate = {1996-02-01},
journal = {The Journal of Mental Health Administration},
volume = {23},
number = {3},
pages = {272-287},
abstract = {Concurrent substance and psychiatric problems have been shown to significantly reduce the probability of successful treatment outcomes while increasing vulnerability to a range of troubles including homelessness, incarceration, physical health problems, and criminal victimization. This article presents an ethnographic analysis of treatment processes in a residential social model treatment program specifically designed for individuals with dual diagnoses in an effort to inform current debates with empirically grounded knowledge regarding therapeutic practice itself. The article focuses on four fundamental themes bearing on therapeutic practice in this residential program: social model treatment; the formulation of clinical identities; recovery, personal responsibility, and authority; and the measurement of therapeutic success. In conclusion, the article suggests that the central role played by program residents in the therapeutic process deserves particular attention and makes recommendations regarding mental health services delivery that, if followed, might invigorate treatment efficacy.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Concurrent substance and psychiatric problems have been shown to significantly reduce the probability of successful treatment outcomes while increasing vulnerability to a range of troubles including homelessness, incarceration, physical health problems, and criminal victimization. This article presents an ethnographic analysis of treatment processes in a residential social model treatment program specifically designed for individuals with dual diagnoses in an effort to inform current debates with empirically grounded knowledge regarding therapeutic practice itself. The article focuses on four fundamental themes bearing on therapeutic practice in this residential program: social model treatment; the formulation of clinical identities; recovery, personal responsibility, and authority; and the measurement of therapeutic success. In conclusion, the article suggests that the central role played by program residents in the therapeutic process deserves particular attention and makes recommendations regarding mental health services delivery that, if followed, might invigorate treatment efficacy.
1995
Weinberg, Darin; Koegel, Paul
Impediments to recovery in treatment programs for dually diagnosed homeless adults: an ethnographic analysis Journal Article
In: Contemporary Drug Problems, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 193-236, 1995.
@article{Weinberg1995,
title = {Impediments to recovery in treatment programs for dually diagnosed homeless adults: an ethnographic analysis},
author = {Darin Weinberg and Paul Koegel},
doi = {10.1177/009145099502200204},
year = {1995},
date = {1995-06-01},
urldate = {1995-06-01},
journal = {Contemporary Drug Problems},
volume = {22},
number = {2},
pages = {193-236},
abstract = {Data were gathered through participant observation and unstructured interviews with both clients and counselors in each of the two treatment programs.'The first author spent between 20 and 30 hours per week engaged in fieldwork on this project, dividing his time between site visits and the production of detailed fieldnotes. Site visits were made to the residential treatment setting on an at least weekly basis (and often more frequently) over a nine-month period. These visits entailed spending the day with members of the program and going through their routines with them. All formal group meetings were attended, informal activities were shared in, and a good deal of time was also spent privately conversing with both clients and counselors regarding their experiences in the program and related topics.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Data were gathered through participant observation and unstructured interviews with both clients and counselors in each of the two treatment programs.'The first author spent between 20 and 30 hours per week engaged in fieldwork on this project, dividing his time between site visits and the production of detailed fieldnotes. Site visits were made to the residential treatment setting on an at least weekly basis (and often more frequently) over a nine-month period. These visits entailed spending the day with members of the program and going through their routines with them. All formal group meetings were attended, informal activities were shared in, and a good deal of time was also spent privately conversing with both clients and counselors regarding their experiences in the program and related topics.