Fractals for an ethnography of time and addiction

Recursive and self-similar temporalities in heroin and poly-substance use

Bibliographic Data

ID15529912
AuthorsLaura Roe (0000-0001-8240-8939, University of St Andrews, corresponding author), Sonja Dobroski (0000-0003-4938-8651, University of Manchester), Gabriela Manley (0000-0002-3692-8180, Durham University), Holly Warner (0000-0003-2325-8744, University of Edinburgh), Heidi Dritschel (University of St Andrews), Alex Baldacchino (0000-0002-5388-7376, University of St Andrews), Alexander Mario Baldacchino
Year2023
Volume14
Pages1116142-1116142
Publication date2023-02-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1664-0640 • E-ISSN: 1664-0640
PublisherFrontiers Media (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1116142
PMID36816418
OpenAlexW4318998555
LanguageEN
References cited18

Drawing on both mathematical and anthropological understandings of fractality, this paper explores alternative perspectives of time as it relates to heroin addiction and poly-substance use in Scotland. The paper ethnographically illustrates temporalities which confound typical conceptualizations of linearity, and which can be better understood as fractal. Senses of linear time are disrupted for people who use heroin through intensive poly-substance use, an increasing trend in Scotland, as both time and memory become fragmented beyond coherence or re-assemblage. Distortedness and complexity being common descriptors applied to mathematical fractals, time shattered into uncountable and un-interpretable fragments similarly connotes fracture, dissonance, and distortion. A meaningful engagement with fractal theory contains the potential to open up new vocabulary, imagery, and theoretical avenues with which to grasp complex and non-linear time experience. The aims of the paper are, therefore, twofold; to both provide a nuanced ethnographic exploration of substance use time, and to develop a reflexive analytical framework for temporal experience through fractals

Epistemology · Ethnography · Fractal · Heroin · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Temporalities · Temporality · Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology

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