Wednesday, October 15th: Kieran Kelley

Paper: Kieran Kelley (PhD Student, Anthropology), Diction and addiction: The semiotic performance of chronicity in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) (Download here: https://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/uslocations/2014-2015-workshop-papers/ )

Discussant: Ali Atef (PhD Student, Anthropology)

Abstract:

The biomedical community construes addiction as a chronic, relapsing disease of the brain (Leshner 1997, McClellan 2000), with the implication that addiction stems from an underlying biological disease-entity and that this disease entity produces relapses into drug use throughout the so-called addict’s life. However, research has contested the concept of chronicity, citing both its social construction (Jiminez 1988, Martin and Peterson 2009), its culture-bound contingency and the heterogeneity of outcomes for those with chronic illnesses (Manderson and Smith 2010, Good et al 2010, Luhrmann 2007), and in the case of addiction, its deleterious effect when adjoined to certain treatment modalities and cultural narratives (Garcia 2008, 2010). Nevertheless, as a cultural concept, chronicity cannot simply exist in abstract ideologies or discourses anymore than within biological disease entities — it must be performed in the lives of those considered chronically ill. This paper examines the semiotic performance of chronicity through an analysis of discursive activity on an internet support forum for clients of Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT), a prevalent intervention strategy for opiate addicts. I argue that the chronicity of addiction emerges from a dynamic interaction of biological processes, social activities and routines, and institutional forces. Because chronicity involves a close relation of the ill and their illnesses (Kleinman 2010), activity that contributes to the formulation of self and subjectivity plays an integral role in its development. In this regard, I look specifically to linguistic activity, and particularly to socially consequential modes of indexicality that mark out social positions and produce ideas concerning identity and personhood. Analyzing how the internet forum serves as a stage for the semiotic performance of chronicity offers valuable insight into how participants enact, embody, and even contest this concept, with broader implications for the understanding of addictive phenomena.