Addictions as a social construction: knowledge´s, public positioning, and state implementation of treatments

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes various ways in which drug addiction has been constructed from different cognitive perspectives, each of which has been conceptualized in terms of: a.The knowledge invoked for its theoretical demarcation and the knowledge produced as a result of that approach. b.The framing of drug addiction in the theoretical body and the representations that govern the so-called ?deviant behaviors? c.The particularization in the subset of problems known as ?medicalized behaviors? d.The historicization of the agents through which these problems materialize in actions and concrete institutions at the Argentine local state level. In this work we assume that the emergence of a problem of these characteristics, contingent decisions about how addiction is treated, what types of medical treatments should be implemented, where and by whom, are decisions that result from the interaction between different social actors that mobilize institutional mechanisms and knowledge that shape the interests of the parties involved and public opinion. Then we systematized each of the elements that have been identified in the respective conceptualizations, to show how the analysis of these dimensions allows us to explain the current structuring of the problem - social, public and knowledge.