Analysis Of The Chronicity Model Of Addiction

As Garcia directs extended focus towards the Foucauldian approach of care and chronicity, she does not use the lens of Gramsci on hegemony and resistance to elaborate on these themes. Gramsci’s theory should be considered as another mode of analysis to further understanding of care and chronicity, in regards to heroin addiction. Hegemony can be described as the advancement of the dominant class in establishing their interpretation of reality, in a way that is accepted by society. Gramsci’s definition of resistance is based on the national level and it involves opposition to the status quo (Kohrman 2016). Hegemony is qutie evident when one views chronicity as the common framework, the prevailing framework of addiction; care in the midst of this

The adaptation that occurs in the majority of the illness narratives is physical, social and mental. Garcia professes that most heroin addicts are “sentenced to detoxification [as] the first official step in a longer process of drug recovery” (2010, 2). Despite the diversity of these individuals’ personal histories, they are repressed from their distinct experiences, that most likely have contributed to their addiction, and forced to comply to similar legal rulings headed by a dominant class. The “Twelve Step Model” defines the length of the recovery process, thus the heroin addicts are required to leave their place of residence and attend Nuevo Dia for a time period that is based on this norm. In the social context, patients are assigned to new living arrangements in the detox center, hence being in the presence of other addicts who are also on the road to recovery. This social environment is not very beneficial for those who are adamant to get clean; the presence of patients in the same clinic, who are in worse conditions, is a “reminder of [their] needs” to revert back to drug use (Garcia 2010, 67). The vicious cycle of recovery and relapse is an outcome of the clinic’s social circumstances, which gives the chronology of addiction a valid stance in society. Incidentally, the mental aspect of conformity is

She has indirectly experienced addiction through multiple family members, therefore acquiring the ability to care for addicts in her hometown. Adela feels she has a responsibility to attend to those who are in dire need of treatment, especially since there is no longer a treatment center in the area. The local detox attendant makes a devoted effort to “push back against hegemonic sociocultural forces” by redefining care as a component of understanding, compassion and love. With this transformation, heroin addicts gain jurisdiction of their own bodies and a “greater say over the shape of their own subjectivities (Kohrman 2016). Individuals are no longer treated as prisoners of the state, yet as people with an illness. This particular account signifies hope in the Espanola Valley, despite the prevailing constraints that aims to criminalize a marginalized population for their issues. Professor Kohrman restates in his lecture that “hegemony’s victories are never final,” which is due to the presence of “multitude of resistances to ideological domination” (2016). Adela’s means of care resists the power of the clinical gaze, while investing in the health of the local people. Although heroin addiction in New Mexico is still a prevalent issue in today’s society, there seems to be an improvement in the quality of treatment when home detox