Personalising and individualising addiction as a social construction of power 
23 May 2012
11am
Venue: Room 901, Level 9, Human Sciences Building
Host: Presenter Bio: Helen Warren (PhD; MA. Sociology; RN), Senior Lecturer, Addictions, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
In this paper I use the work of Cornelius Castoriadis as a theoretical basis to explore the determination of employers and registering bodies to personalise and individualise ‘addiction’ as a social construction of power between the bureaucratic institutions they represent and the ‘everyday’ world where interactions take place. Examples from my own practice, District Health Board Services and Nursing Council data are used to illustrate the problem.
Castoriadis argues that humanity emerges as ‘psyche’ relating everything to itself and is mediated by the social form imposed on it by the institution.
