Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States
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Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK
2018
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1528722783811988 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-case15287227838119882021-08-03T07:07:10Z Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States Schlosser, Allison V. Cultural Anthropology Gender Health Medical Ethics Social Research Illegal Drug Use Addiction Healthcare Anthropology Ethnography United States The U.S. is in the midst of what is commonly referred to as the “opioid crisis” as opioid use and overdose death have increased dramatically in the last decade. The emergence of new groups of relatively socially privileged opioid users has unsettled cultural beliefs about “addiction.” Socioeconomically vulnerable regions have been disproportionately affected. These communities struggle with opioid use and related problems that strain families, social services, healthcare, and criminal justice systems. Advocates, scholars, and service providers increasingly call for biomedical interventions, yet these approaches merge uneasily with longstanding criminological, social, and psychological interventions. This dissertation examines the opioid crisis from the perspective of treatment clients. This study is based on 20 months of ethnographic research at a publically-funded residential treatment center in Northeast Ohio that delivers clinically hybrid treatment merging biomedicine with psychological, 12 Step, and juridical approaches. This study focuses on two objectives: 1) To understand how client subjectivities and social belonging are constructed in relation to clinically hybrid treatment in the context of cultural, political, and economic shifts, and 2) To understand how clients engage biomedicine as they navigate treatment and community settings. This research uses longitudinal person-centered ethnographic methods and draws on moral economy, biopolitical citizenship, and embodiment theories. Analyses examine how 52 clients (26 women / 26 men) navigate social settings of everyday life in and after treatment. Specifically, analyses explore how clients who are socially positioned in diverse ways engage multiple models of “good” (moral) personhood in treatment and community settings, how biomedical discourses emerge in these practices, and how these processes relate to subjectivity, social belonging, and resource access. A key finding of this study is that treatment models of moral personhood conflict with one another as well as those of clients’ social networks. Clients hybridize, selectively utilize, and reject various moral models to seek social connection forbidden in treatment, manage body alienation from medication treatment, and process overdose deaths of family, friends, and treatment peers. These processes, however, simultaneously challenge and reproduce social inequalities. Findings contribute to social theories of addiction, subjectivity, and embodiment, and inform health policy and intervention efforts. 2018-08-31 English text Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1528722783811988 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1528722783811988 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Cultural Anthropology Gender Health Medical Ethics Social Research Illegal Drug Use Addiction Healthcare Anthropology Ethnography United States |
| spellingShingle |
Cultural Anthropology Gender Health Medical Ethics Social Research Illegal Drug Use Addiction Healthcare Anthropology Ethnography United States Schlosser, Allison V. Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| author |
Schlosser, Allison V. |
| author_facet |
Schlosser, Allison V. |
| author_sort |
Schlosser, Allison V. |
| title |
Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| title_short |
Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| title_full |
Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| title_fullStr |
Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Subjectivity and Moral Personhood: An Ethnography of Addiction Treatment in the United States |
| title_sort |
subjectivity and moral personhood: an ethnography of addiction treatment in the united states |
| publisher |
Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1528722783811988 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT schlosserallisonv subjectivityandmoralpersonhoodanethnographyofaddictiontreatmentintheunitedstates |
| _version_ |
1719453897111633920 |