Dislocation Theory and the
Globalization of Addiction
Today’s Agenda:
•House Keeping
•Lecture / Movie
The Dislocation Theory of Addiction:
Setting the Tone
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Dislocation Theory
Bruce Alexander
Professor Emeritus of Psychology at
SFU
Addictions result from failure to achieve the level of social
acceptance, competence, self-confidence and personal
autonomy required of individuals in the society in which
they live.
Background
• Addiction is an overwhelming involvement with any pursuit
what so ever (including, but not limited to, drugs or alcohol)
that is harmful to the addicted person, to society or both.
• We are still crying out for an explanation for addiction - and
there yet remains no consensus.
• Our currents theories have not impacted the addiction
problem... Thus the globalization of addiction “continues”
Psychosocial Integration
• We are disconnected from from inward
and outward identity
• This lack of psychosocial integration is
•DISLOCATION
Dislocation
• Also know as
a “soul wound”
• Poverty of
Spirit
Psychosocial Integration
• Interdependence
• Sense of Identity
• Oneness with nature
• Connection to the “divine” / “spirit”
• Wholeness
• Worldly Soul
The Free Market... or
Marketing our Doom?
Psychosocial Integration
• In the past, psychosocial integration was achieved from
within the community, giving life to an individuated self and
sense of freedom, but a “community self” as well.
•
For example, at one time we had nuclear families, connection to dead
ancestors, connection to extended family, to villages of families.
•
These subgroups all grew from relatively stable and internally consistent
traditions
• Today, our communities consist of “institutions”
Dislocation
Dislocation can endure for a time, but prolonged
dislocation eventually leads to despair, shame,
emotional anguish, boredom, bewilderment, it often
precipitates suicide and of course is responsible for...
•
• Addiction
Dislocation
• Dislocation is not eradicated through food, shelter,
nor through the attainment of wealth.
• But instead through a spiritual community to which
one belongs.
• Dislocation can have many causes:
1.
Natural disasters (destroys whole communities)
2.
Wars
3.
Child abuse
4.
Ostracization
5.
Destroying economic basis for a community
6. Globalizing Free market society “hyper-capitalism”
Globalizing free-market society
undermines psychosocial integration
• Free market society: market where there is no
economic intervention by the government
•
In free market economies, for example, people are expected to move to where jobs
can be found, and to adjust their work lives and cultural tastes to the demands of a
global market.
•
People who cannot achieve psychosocial integration develop “substitute”
lifestyles.
•
Substitute lifestyles entail excessive habits including—but not restricted to
drug use, and social relationships that are not sufficiently close, stable, or
culturally acceptable.
•
People who can find no better way of achieving psychosocial integration
cling to their substitute lifestyles with a tenacity that is properly called
“addiction”.
Globalising (cont.)
•
Although any person in any society can become dislocated,
modern western societies dislocate all their members to a
greater or lesser degree because all members must
participate in “free markets”.
•
One in which controls labor, land, money and consumer
goods.
•
Thus we take the role of individual economic actors,
unencumbered by family and friendship obligations, clan
loyalties, community responsibilities, charitable feelings, the
values or their religion, ethnic group, or nation.
You Were Born into Bondage!
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Free Market Society: How Far
does the Rabbit Hole Go?
• Established “free” market
societies require the
continuing presence of
powerful control systems.
• Carefully engineered
management, advertising,
taxation, and mass media
techniques keep people
buying, selling,working,
borrowing, lending, and
consuming at optimal
rates.
Rabbit Hole (cont.)
• This deliberately undermines the countervailing
influences of new social structures that
spontaneously arise in modern families, offices,
factories, etc.
• Thus, opportunities to reestablish new forms of
psychosocial integration are suppressed.
Addiction is Adaptive
•
People react to psychosocial disintegration because is it adaptive.
•
They attempt to at least have “some kind of life”
•
Adaptation doesn’t mean desirable - it becomes a “lesser evil”...
Buffering...
•
Persons against “unbearable feelings” of dislocation
•
Fragmentation of identity
•
Acculturation / Assimilation Stress
Dislocation Theory
Dislocation Theory: Insufficient to
Cause Addiction
•
But a move in the right
direction
•
Flatly contradicts
conventional wisdom
•
Worn out theories - time for
paradigm shift
•
Paradigm shifts occur when
former theories don’t
resolve old questions.. We
must then begin to move
onto new ones
Dislocation Theory:
Boundaries
• Does not address why one person becomes addicted
to one substance and not another
• Cannot account for why one dislocated person
overcomes there handicaps while another does not
• But those who do become addicted in our free market
society are only slightly different than each other
Dislocation Theory & Combatting Addiction:Where
Do We Begin?
• Own the fact that current theories and etiological models of addiction are
outdated
• Open political discussion...
• A realistic discussion must recognize that addiction is mass-produced in
a free market society, and that, therefore, society as well as individuals
must change.
•
Rather than endlessly competing for funds by overstating their own achievements, those
who support each of the four pillars (i.e., prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and
policing) should apprise society of the limited extent of their accomplishments, thereby
showing that even the four pillars together cannot save the day.
Opening the Door
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H.264 decompressor
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Where do we begin (cont.)
•
People need to belong within their society, not just trade in its markets.
•
Honest labour markets / laws
•
Abolishment of labor exploitation
•
Thus impose fair labor standards on a global level and prevent
transnational corporations from inducing local governments to rescind
local labor, health, safety, and environmental protections.
Social Change
• Challenge futile policing practices
• Allocation and spends funds more appropriately
• Stop cuts in housing / Welfare / EI
• Teach and education and our youth to care for one
another at deeper level
• Invest in social housing
• Public services need to be more nurturing
• Place full-time employment at the top of policy agendas