Nineteenth-century narratives of addiction
Relational harm and the child as witness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6427447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Madeleine Wood (0009-0007-0459-3877, University of Essex, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 26-50 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of the Human Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-6951 • E-ISSN: 1461-720X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09526951241278553 |
| OpenAlex | W4404118931 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
Through close reading of medical and cultural texts, this article demonstrates how the narrativisation of relational harm underpinned the emerging categorisation of ‘addiction’ in the 19th century: excessive consumption was conceived through its detrimental impact upon others, and more specifically, upon the family. The problem was portrayed as physiological, psychological, and social: ‘addiction’ could not be located securely within a single individual, nor was it conceived simply as a social vice. While other societal themes emerge in the medical writing of the period, such as the relationship between drinking and criminality, and the visibility of drinking in the working-classes, these are not presented as proto-diagnostic criteria in the same way as relational harm. In theorising addiction, medicine relied upon rhetorical devices and narrative modes, and authors and artists took an active role in defining the terms of the debate around drinking, drug use, and gambling. Charles Dickens and George Cruikshank represent childhood through the adult's compulsive behaviour, which the child witnesses, while the adult's behaviour itself is conceived as harm directed towards child. The article demonstrates how 21st-century attitudes, particularly located in the fields of psychiatric diagnosis and child protection social work, echo debates established by 19th-century narratives, arguing that that the disease model of addiction was closely associated with the medico-legal production of childhood. Nineteenth-century narratives of addiction therefore anticipate late 20th- and 21st-century attitudes regarding the impact of parental substance use upon children
Addiction · Art · Criminology · Harm · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Witness · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
The field of cultural production
Dictionary of National Biography
Addiction and relational therapy
Culture and Power
Consuming habits
Sociological Perspectives on Addiction
Addiction phobia
Freedom and addiction in four discursive registers
Social Structure and Anomie
Lindesmith on Addiction
A Sociological Theory of Drug Addiction
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |