WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.440 Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to the continuation of the second 2 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:11.740 Festival of Ideas here in the City of Enlightenment, Adelaide. 3 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:26.140 I think the power of gathering some of the finest and most progressive thinkers and doers in the 4 00:00:26.140 --> 00:00:35.160 world and concentrating them in a small place actually creates a kind of very, very potent, 5 00:00:38.940 --> 00:00:45.780 supercharged series of inevitabilities, let's hope. And let's hope that what we're going to 6 00:00:45.780 --> 00:00:52.120 come out of this weekend with is a bunch of things that actually do mobilize and give courage and 7 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:54.580 give strength to the voices that need to be heard. 8 00:00:56.140 --> 00:01:02.560 And create a wider circle of empowerment. The woman we're gathered to hear from and talk with this 9 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:08.880 afternoon is one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. Virginia McGowan is extremely well 10 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:13.320 known in the circles in which she travels, but I'm happy to see those circles are widening. 11 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:22.400 She's done path-breaking work in terms of the hands-on, direct questions of dealing with 12 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:25.800 addiction and its consequences and its causes. 13 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:32.880 Not necessarily in that order, particularly focusing in First Nations communities and indigenous 14 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:42.100 communities around the world. And she's going to talk to us today about the deeper levels of 15 00:01:43.020 --> 00:01:50.200 understanding that this kind of work is leading her to, particularly in terms of what I hope will all 16 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:55.940 emerge from this weekend with, the sense of the inner connectivity of these questions of addiction. 17 00:01:55.940 --> 00:02:05.660 These questions of environmental degradation. These questions of recognizing the commercial and 18 00:02:05.660 --> 00:02:12.680 economic disparities we're in the middle of. And what those implications are for reconciliation with 19 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:19.380 ourselves, with each other, and with our place in this world. It's a huge privilege to welcome 20 00:02:19.380 --> 00:02:20.560 Virginia McGowan. 21 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:34.540 Thank you, Peter. I don't have any place. I don't think I can put my water. 22 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:35.320 Oh, no. 23 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:36.840 I'll just, excuse me. 24 00:02:41.380 --> 00:02:50.180 Before I begin, first of all, I'd like to say what a pleasure it is to be back here in Adelaide. This is the fourth year that I've visited here and it seems to draw me back time after time. 25 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:55.820 Not the least because I have some family who immigrated here, so it makes it a 26 00:02:55.940 --> 00:03:05.900 nice place to come for many different reasons. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Kaurna people and pay my respects to their elders and their land where we gather today. 27 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:12.440 I'd also like to acknowledge the keynote speaker and panel members who spoke so eloquently to us last night. 28 00:03:12.980 --> 00:03:21.220 They began us off on the right foot, I think. They reminded us of the very human and political aspects of the issues we've gathered to talk about over these few days. 29 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:24.360 Addiction. 30 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.040 Hali-abocative 31 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:29.540 Hali- emotive are 32 00:03:42.820 --> 00:03:45.980 We've learnt the intricacies of this particular enigma. 33 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:48.680 We can intercept it at various points. 34 00:03:48.920 --> 00:03:51.060 We can describe its forms. 35 00:03:51.780 --> 00:03:54.280 But we can't seem to crack the code. 36 00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:57.720 The key continues to elude us. 37 00:03:58.280 --> 00:03:59.640 And we worry about it. 38 00:04:00.420 --> 00:04:02.720 We worry about how to talk about it. 39 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:05.280 We worry about how to categorize it. 40 00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:07.520 We worry about how to deal with it. 41 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:11.000 We worry about its invasion into our lives. 42 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.200 And we worry that it has become endemic in our public and our private worlds. 43 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:21.940 Despite our best efforts in prevention, treatment, harm reduction and public order, 44 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:27.820 addiction eludes our attempt to eradicate, deal with, cope with or ignore it. 45 00:04:28.340 --> 00:04:30.840 And things appear to be getting worse. 46 00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:37.260 We seem to be behaving addictively across a wider range of activities that touch all levels of society. 47 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:40.760 From drugs, to gambling, to eating, 48 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:46.000 to shopping, working, sex, exercise, relationships, power, what have you. 49 00:04:46.780 --> 00:04:51.980 Even our governments appear to be addicted to gambling revenues in the pursuit of balanced budgets. 50 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:59.720 The addiction treatment industry, a massive, multifaceted, multinational set of enterprises, 51 00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:02.280 can only claim limited success. 52 00:05:03.640 --> 00:05:08.320 Moreover, our research tells us that those who are most marginalized 53 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.440 and have the fewest resources, 54 00:05:10.580 --> 00:05:10.980 are better off. 55 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:12.860 And that's because they are bearing the larger burden of despair. 56 00:05:14.340 --> 00:05:18.780 In my talk today, I plan to look at different meanings given to the experience of addiction. 57 00:05:19.140 --> 00:05:23.100 And will suggest that we are missing a key element of the code. 58 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:28.560 In many ways, things seemed easier to understand in earlier times. 59 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:34.960 We have evidence of concern about over-drinking from the hieroglyphics written on the tombs of the pharaohs. 60 00:05:35.260 --> 00:05:37.100 The message wasn't terribly profound. 61 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:40.100 Essentially, it was, be careful about drinking too much, 62 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:42.060 as you will likely fall down and hurt yourself. 63 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:47.540 Citing neglect of duty to religious rights and obligations, 64 00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:51.700 the early Christian church codified chronic drunkenness among the clergy. 65 00:05:52.320 --> 00:05:53.700 Although not drinking itself, 66 00:05:54.940 --> 00:05:59.260 they codified it as evidence of sin, requiring penance and absolution. 67 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:05.280 And similar denunciations of excessive alcohol consumption appear in the texts of other faiths as well. 68 00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:09.360 Now, in 18th century Britain, a moral panic developed. 69 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:13.200 Perhaps accurate, if eyewitness accounts can be accepted, 70 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:17.540 concerning unprecedented levels of drunkenness among the working classes, 71 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:20.000 as cheap gin became widely available. 72 00:06:20.760 --> 00:06:27.300 In about 1834, a select committee of the British Parliament drew attention to the health and social consequences of intoxication 73 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:29.340 experienced by the labouring poor, 74 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:32.740 prompted by concern about mortality and morbidity, 75 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:35.840 and associated impacts on the labour force, 76 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:38.980 and women's participation in public drunkenness. 77 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:44.360 By comparison, overt alcohol and other drug consumption among the upper classes 78 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:46.440 gained scant attention in their report, 79 00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:49.000 as this was, purportedly, on the decline. 80 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:54.040 We see this rhetoric of concern repeated at various times in our histories. 81 00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:58.980 Coffee and tobacco products have been vilified as sinful and dangerous. 82 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.320 Opium, marijuana, cocaine, and designer drugs more recently so. 83 00:07:03.780 --> 00:07:09.060 And we notice that the rhetoric of concern is often gendered, racist, and classist. 84 00:07:10.340 --> 00:07:14.740 Talk of alcoholism as addiction doesn't appear until the later part of the 18th century. 85 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:20.440 Early talk of addiction retained the rhetoric of sinnery that was evident in the stance of the early church, 86 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:25.120 and ideas about the substance itself having mystical, somewhat magical qualities. 87 00:07:26.440 --> 00:07:29.780 Today we understand the shape and form of alcohol, as other drugs, 88 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:33.260 and that these drugs take different people in different ways. 89 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:39.780 In contemporary talk, the experience of taking a drug is understood to be mediated by several different factors. 90 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:42.500 The pharmacological action of the drug, 91 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.460 attributes of the individuals who use it, 92 00:07:45.700 --> 00:07:50.320 and the social and cultural context in which this drug-taking occurs. 93 00:07:51.580 --> 00:07:57.560 And some other consciousness-changing behaviors seem to operate in comparable ways to this drug use model, 94 00:07:57.720 --> 00:07:59.260 although others not so much. 95 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:02.460 But what is this thing we name addiction? 96 00:08:03.460 --> 00:08:07.480 Now generally we name addictive a compulsive lifestyle, 97 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:16.840 focused on relatively single-minded pursuit of an activity producing changes in one's subjective experiences of consciousness, 98 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:21.480 taking the form of both psychological and physiological dependence, 99 00:08:21.900 --> 00:08:25.060 and continued despite having negative consequences. 100 00:08:26.300 --> 00:08:28.180 Few set out to become addicted, 101 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:35.180 but people seem to engage in activities that can lead to addiction because, simply put, makes them feel good. 102 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.360 At least in the early stages, 103 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:40.020 before the drug ceases to have pleasurable effects, 104 00:08:40.260 --> 00:08:42.480 or the gambling debts start rolling in. 105 00:08:43.300 --> 00:08:44.920 For someone caught up in addiction, 106 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:47.660 it's as if the rest of the world has faded out, 107 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:54.200 serving only as a backdrop to an existence in which other activities and relationships become mere shadows. 108 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:59.040 This is captured exquisitely in a recent Australian novel, 109 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.840 where a father becomes so obsessed by the planting and naming of eucalyptus trees 110 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.640 that he's willing to sacrifice his only daughter to a whim, 111 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:10.520 nearly losing her body, mind and soul in the process. 112 00:09:12.820 --> 00:09:18.120 And in some circles, particularly among academics who tend to worry a lot about which words are used and how, 113 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:23.140 there's periodic debate about whether addiction is or is not a useful term. 114 00:09:23.880 --> 00:09:28.360 However, addiction has entered popular culture as a word that signifies worrisome, 115 00:09:28.380 --> 00:09:30.520 perhaps compulsive, consumptive habits, 116 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:32.980 and it's here to stay, at least for the while. 117 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:36.620 Modern Western science explains addictive behavior as a form of addiction, 118 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:39.520 a behavior in terms of pleasure and pain, function and dysfunction. 119 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:43.180 From the media and pop psychology, 120 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:48.420 the idea that addiction is a chronic, progressive disease state has entered the popular imagination. 121 00:09:49.040 --> 00:09:52.180 This is in spite of decades of research and clinical experience 122 00:09:52.180 --> 00:09:55.280 indicating that addiction is not necessarily progressive, 123 00:09:55.560 --> 00:09:58.360 and the notion of disease is at best a metaphor. 124 00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:04.080 Now I don't tend to imply this afternoon that I possess some special mystical knowledge 125 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.360 or even a concrete answer to the enigma 126 00:10:06.620 --> 00:10:06.920 that is addiction, 127 00:10:07.580 --> 00:10:11.720 but my own experience in the field has stirred some thoughts that I will share with you today. 128 00:10:12.260 --> 00:10:16.540 And these thoughts derive from several sources, including my own work in natural settings. 129 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.940 It's research that takes place in communities, in homes, 130 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:22.080 most often over cups of tea, 131 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:26.820 in intimate contact with day-to-day lives of people struggling with addiction, 132 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:31.940 or people reflecting on where they've been in their efforts to overcome addiction. 133 00:10:32.760 --> 00:10:35.620 I've been listening to and learning from these extraordinary people, 134 00:10:36.620 --> 00:10:37.280 for some years now. 135 00:10:37.780 --> 00:10:42.440 And at the same time, I've been reading and discussing the writings of others in the addiction field 136 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:44.580 as well as those who are writing in the margins. 137 00:10:45.060 --> 00:10:49.880 And it's my hope that the ideas I share today may stimulate further reflection on your part 138 00:10:49.880 --> 00:10:52.080 and encourage you to continue these discussions 139 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:56.200 in a way that will shed some light, eventually, on the puzzle of addiction. 140 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:02.080 I've come to believe that we need to listen carefully to other meanings given to addiction, 141 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:06.080 offered by people with different histories, cultures and experiences, 142 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:11.460 for we live in a culturally mediated world that gives meaning to what we are and what we do, 143 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.160 what we think we are and what we think we do, 144 00:11:14.300 --> 00:11:18.100 with attendant beliefs and values expressed in our discourses, 145 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:20.840 in the way we talk about things, in our metaphors, 146 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:24.200 in our scripts for how we live or are expected to live. 147 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.960 This is a highly subjective way of understanding the different ways in which we experience what it means to be human. 148 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:35.320 This view differs somewhat from the perspective of more objective science, 149 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.420 which is based in experimental or epidemiological research, 150 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:43.720 and which seeks an empirical truth and supplies us with useful statistics and insights. 151 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:50.200 But the point I wish to make here is that the theories and methods of both objective scientific investigation 152 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:53.580 and more subjective social science research, 153 00:11:53.880 --> 00:11:56.780 as well as the discourse of everyday mainstream life, 154 00:11:57.060 --> 00:11:59.380 reflect a particular cultural perspective, 155 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.420 and that is Western cosmology or world view, 156 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:05.300 with its accompanying systems of meaning and interpretation. 157 00:12:06.260 --> 00:12:09.420 And the various discourses that emerge in mainstream society 158 00:12:09.420 --> 00:12:11.760 confuse more than clarify the picture. 159 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:16.320 When it comes to addiction, we are a virtual tower of Babel. 160 00:12:17.660 --> 00:12:23.580 A number of distinctive discourses about addiction are evident among three groups in mainstream Western society, 161 00:12:23.900 --> 00:12:27.380 and these are the experts, the general public, 162 00:12:27.560 --> 00:12:33.260 and finally private individuals who are struggling with their own or others' addictive behaviors. 163 00:12:34.020 --> 00:12:35.300 I'll then turn to a group of experts, 164 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:37.860 who will examine ways of understanding addiction from other perspectives. 165 00:12:39.300 --> 00:12:44.140 Now, I don't mean to either essentialize or homogenize these discourses unfairly. 166 00:12:44.300 --> 00:12:48.380 One can look at the separate waves in the sea and pick one out from another. 167 00:12:48.760 --> 00:12:52.260 But you can also stand back and observe the larger patterns, 168 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.820 which is what I propose we need to do at some point. 169 00:12:56.060 --> 00:12:58.740 So let's examine the first group, the experts, 170 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:01.980 comprising academics, policymakers, 171 00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:07.020 and professionals in the health and social services who are involved in the addictions field. 172 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:11.380 The experts are prominent in mainstream discourses about addictions 173 00:13:11.380 --> 00:13:15.160 and have a large say about the penalties and sanctions given, 174 00:13:15.340 --> 00:13:18.900 having inherited the voice of authority held in earlier times by the church. 175 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:22.480 Absent is the rhetoric of weak-willed sinner 176 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.040 or supercharged substance that appeared in earlier days 177 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:28.600 as the factor underlying addictive behaviors, 178 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.960 and disease rhetoric is restricted largely to adherence, 179 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:36.140 a 12-step programs, a cultural form particularly prominent in North America. 180 00:13:37.060 --> 00:13:40.480 Expert talk is predominantly about behavioral typologies, 181 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:44.360 contributing factors, and redirection of public concerns 182 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:48.560 to what are identified as appropriate issues related to measurable social harms. 183 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:55.540 At present, this expert discourse is revisiting the public health perspective of the early 18th century, 184 00:13:55.700 --> 00:14:01.440 so we hear again social environmental concerns about excessive use of alcohol and other drugs. 185 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:06.520 The lens is focused, for example, on issues such as social costs 186 00:14:06.520 --> 00:14:12.600 and the nature and degree of harm associated with various patterns of drug use or levels of gambling. 187 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:17.680 Other questions are about the impact of expanded gambling or drug-using opportunities 188 00:14:17.680 --> 00:14:19.880 on government revenues or treatment services. 189 00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:25.380 They talk about what type of interventions make a difference, in which context, and so on. 190 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:31.340 Now there's relatively little talk of addiction per se in this discourse. 191 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:36.060 But the experts appear anxious about a wide range of patterns of misuse, 192 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:41.080 particularly intoxication, which they describe as a pattern of intensive consumption 193 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:44.500 appearing to yield the greatest harm overall to society, 194 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:51.980 evidenced by statistics on driving while impaired, violence and aggression, missed work, and social problems. 195 00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:59.000 We hear them talk as well about chronic excess use and its impact on health and finances. 196 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.780 And finally, their talk is about dependency, 197 00:15:02.040 --> 00:15:06.520 which is the preferred term replacing addiction in contemporary expert discourse 198 00:15:06.520 --> 00:15:10.500 and refers to the development of reliance upon a substance or, 199 00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:13.580 such as we see in the case of gambling, upon an activity. 200 00:15:14.420 --> 00:15:18.820 You notice that the language used is often detached, distant. 201 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:23.000 And a mantra of holism appears within this discourse 202 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:28.280 where biological, psychological and social factors are cited and mention is made. 203 00:15:29.020 --> 00:15:32.660 Briefly, and a tad uncomfortably, about spirituality. 204 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:39.220 Particularly in academia, the discourse reflects the preferred objective perspective 205 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.740 codified in scientific research and culminating in internal quarrels 206 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:47.600 about methodologies, interpretations and orthodoxies. 207 00:15:47.980 --> 00:15:53.200 And nearly everyone is anxious to avoid being compromised by association with the industry 208 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:57.700 and worries about being seen to be in league with sectors such as the beverage, alcohol industry, 209 00:15:57.700 --> 00:15:59.380 or gambling consortia. 210 00:16:01.300 --> 00:16:04.020 Let's turn to discourse among the general public for a moment. 211 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:06.360 The public is worried about safety. 212 00:16:07.300 --> 00:16:12.140 Particularly about how well they are protected against those who are seen to be in the thrall of addiction. 213 00:16:12.760 --> 00:16:16.080 And about how they can prevent their kids from entering into this shadow world. 214 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:20.300 The problem of addiction is perceived to be one largely of will. 215 00:16:21.180 --> 00:16:26.020 Thus, addiction is referenced as either a problem of morality, that is, a weak will, 216 00:16:26.020 --> 00:16:29.760 or disease, where there is no will present. 217 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:36.980 And the concept of addiction is extended increasingly to all behaviors or lifestyles perceived to be out of control. 218 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.220 Public attitudes toward addiction are gained largely from media representations 219 00:16:42.220 --> 00:16:50.080 such as 28 Days, Leaving Las Vegas, Traffic, Trainspotting, and so on. 220 00:16:50.900 --> 00:16:55.700 Television shows ranging from Jerry Springer to ER appear to give real-life drama 221 00:16:56.020 --> 00:17:00.660 to addiction, while sensationalizing and somewhat oversimplifying what is going on. 222 00:17:02.060 --> 00:17:07.780 In the public sphere, the discourse reflects a complex mix of perceptions inherited from earlier times. 223 00:17:08.360 --> 00:17:13.780 This includes the view that addiction stems from a lack of will or moral fiber, which is the image of the sinner. 224 00:17:14.520 --> 00:17:19.700 The idea that addiction is attributable to a deficient genetic or physiological disposition, 225 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:21.760 the image of the sick person. 226 00:17:22.560 --> 00:17:25.920 And that addiction in an adult likely signals earlier trauma, 227 00:17:26.020 --> 00:17:28.780 such as a terrible childhood, the image of the victim. 228 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:34.380 The public is concerned with safety, and is of the view that people with addictions 229 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:38.580 are a deviant and unpredictable group from whom the rest of us must be protected. 230 00:17:40.340 --> 00:17:44.740 What are those charged with law enforcement doing about the illegal drug trade and associated crime? 231 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:51.620 What's being done to create inner cities that are safe, to safeguard our homes in the suburbs? 232 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:56.000 What are reasonable taxes on beverage, alcohol, and alcohol? 233 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.080 And how can we best use tobacco products? 234 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:00.980 Where should gambling revenues be diverted? 235 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:04.660 And how will this expanded gambling affect charitable fundraising, 236 00:18:04.900 --> 00:18:06.580 such as seniors clubs and youth groups? 237 00:18:07.420 --> 00:18:10.180 Will small businesses suffer if smoking is banned from restaurants? 238 00:18:11.100 --> 00:18:13.620 How can we prevent our youth from being exposed to drugs? 239 00:18:14.280 --> 00:18:16.420 These are some of the common questions that you'll hear. 240 00:18:17.820 --> 00:18:19.680 The language has a tone of fear. 241 00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:23.220 Fear about them having a problem from which society must be protected, 242 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:25.760 and concern about how the social harms, 243 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.440 associated with addiction, will impact our lives. 244 00:18:30.100 --> 00:18:36.140 Now on the other hand, private individuals struggling with their own or others' addictive behaviors 245 00:18:36.140 --> 00:18:42.960 appear overwhelmed by the experience of coping with or managing unmanageable situations. 246 00:18:44.060 --> 00:18:47.220 They know of addiction through their personal experience, 247 00:18:47.560 --> 00:18:53.840 but their discourse is often mediated by self-help talk, the language of codependency, and so on. 248 00:18:54.340 --> 00:18:55.980 They speak of feeling helpless, 249 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:56.280 hopeless, 250 00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:59.860 and of their shame. 251 00:19:00.600 --> 00:19:02.540 They worry about getting help, 252 00:19:02.660 --> 00:19:04.820 getting through another day, 253 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:08.120 whether there will ever be an end. 254 00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:12.000 There's a common thread amongst these discourses, 255 00:19:12.540 --> 00:19:16.780 and that thread is a concept pivotal to Western world views, 256 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.780 which is the central importance of the individual as a self-directed, 257 00:19:21.780 --> 00:19:24.180 autonomous, and entrepreneurial being. 258 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:25.980 Western knowledges, 259 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:28.880 notions about the cause of and appropriate reaction to addiction, 260 00:19:29.060 --> 00:19:32.200 are lodged in deeply held beliefs about individual responsibility, 261 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:33.640 motivations, 262 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:37.240 and the necessary application to task and duty. 263 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:43.640 In this sense, addiction is codified as deviant, uncontrolled, irresponsible behavior, 264 00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:45.500 evidenced by loss of control. 265 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:50.800 From this perspective, others have observed that addiction in Western post-industrial society 266 00:19:50.800 --> 00:19:53.720 has come to be regarded as the supreme evil, 267 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:56.200 both dysfunctional and dangerous, 268 00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:59.060 that must be named and exercised. 269 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:05.280 Despite this central conceptual base, 270 00:20:05.520 --> 00:20:09.520 when you examine the ways that people talk about addictive behaviors in Western society, 271 00:20:09.980 --> 00:20:13.000 addiction appears as a shape-shifter, 272 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:16.700 appearing in somewhat different form to different groups of people, 273 00:20:16.780 --> 00:20:19.600 and evoking somewhat different anxieties accordingly. 274 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:23.260 And this contributes to our confusion about addiction. 275 00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:28.360 Beyond our fixed notions about individual autonomy and self-interested action, 276 00:20:28.540 --> 00:20:31.400 there doesn't appear to be a common set of concerns or expectations. 277 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.540 Private individuals react in bewilderment or frustration to the discourses of experts, 278 00:20:37.800 --> 00:20:41.080 which often appear to have little meaning or relevance in their world. 279 00:20:42.300 --> 00:20:45.660 Among those struggling with addictions at a personal, private level, 280 00:20:45.760 --> 00:20:47.440 there's a feeling of being left behind, 281 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:50.660 being on the outside of professional discourses, 282 00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:53.700 particularly as academics, policymakers, and professionals, 283 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.980 conduct their special internal quarrels 284 00:20:56.980 --> 00:21:01.120 about patterns, trends, interventions, and policy impacts 285 00:21:01.120 --> 00:21:03.520 in an increasingly narrow bandwidth. 286 00:21:04.620 --> 00:21:09.920 And so we have a growing disparity between expert discourse and everyday talk, 287 00:21:10.100 --> 00:21:13.040 between the perspectives of gown and town. 288 00:21:13.840 --> 00:21:16.560 We're like so many people trying to describe an elephant 289 00:21:16.560 --> 00:21:20.440 by closing our eyes and laying our hands on distinctly different parts of its anatomy. 290 00:21:20.800 --> 00:21:22.760 We each think we've got it, 291 00:21:22.760 --> 00:21:24.160 but we only have a part. 292 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.320 But could it be that this confused state is a signal that we have it wrong? 293 00:21:30.100 --> 00:21:33.520 Does our Western cosmology, with its focus on the individual, 294 00:21:33.820 --> 00:21:35.180 the pursuit of pleasure, 295 00:21:35.300 --> 00:21:37.880 and attribution of social and physical dysfunction, 296 00:21:38.760 --> 00:21:42.500 blind us to other ways of understanding the phenomenon that is addiction? 297 00:21:43.560 --> 00:21:46.420 Perhaps, having eaten of a particular tree of knowledge, 298 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:48.800 we neither hear nor see the rest of the forest. 299 00:21:51.060 --> 00:21:52.740 To return to the parable of the elephant, 300 00:21:52.760 --> 00:21:56.160 our understanding of addiction remains limited to either trunk, 301 00:21:56.320 --> 00:21:57.540 or a tail, 302 00:21:57.680 --> 00:21:58.900 or an ear, 303 00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:00.260 or a leg. 304 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:02.980 But the essence eludes us. 305 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:07.720 But listen. 306 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.640 There are other voices, other perspectives, 307 00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:14.440 that have their reference points in social structures and relationships 308 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:15.460 rather than individuals. 309 00:22:16.580 --> 00:22:17.860 Speaking from the margins, 310 00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:20.440 an increasing number of scholars and social theorists 311 00:22:20.440 --> 00:22:22.240 have pointed to structural causes of addiction, 312 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:25.520 citing historical, economic, and social forces. 313 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:27.340 For example, 314 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:31.020 I refer you to Bourgois' exacting ethnography 315 00:22:31.020 --> 00:22:34.100 of the cocaine economy of inner New York City burials, 316 00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:37.960 by which young men achieve social mobility and status 317 00:22:37.960 --> 00:22:39.800 that is unattainable in the mainstream, 318 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:42.920 or Currie's writing about the fault lines 319 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:45.360 along which drug abuse runs in American society. 320 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:50.680 And emerging strongly in the post-colonial world 321 00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:52.540 are voices from indigenous peoples. 322 00:22:53.180 --> 00:22:55.420 Among them is a different discourse 323 00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:57.280 about the enigma that is addiction, 324 00:22:57.480 --> 00:22:59.900 which is described by several writers 325 00:23:00.940 --> 00:23:04.240 as constituting a wounding of the spirit, 326 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:07.520 symptomatic of profound disconnection 327 00:23:07.520 --> 00:23:10.140 from lands and relationships over many generations. 328 00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:12.860 From this perspective, 329 00:23:13.180 --> 00:23:14.520 addiction is rooted deeply 330 00:23:14.520 --> 00:23:17.080 in first people's experiences of colonization, 331 00:23:17.320 --> 00:23:19.340 which has served to disconnect people 332 00:23:19.340 --> 00:23:21.280 from meaningful and intimate relationships 333 00:23:21.280 --> 00:23:22.740 with people and the land. 334 00:23:23.840 --> 00:23:26.600 Further, the disconnecting impact of colonization 335 00:23:26.600 --> 00:23:29.280 has been consolidated by more recent oppressions, 336 00:23:29.320 --> 00:23:31.740 racism, and discriminatory practices. 337 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:34.820 This includes attempted assimilation, 338 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.300 which was an official policy of the Canadian government 339 00:23:37.300 --> 00:23:38.400 until recent years, 340 00:23:38.560 --> 00:23:40.960 a policy that has had devastating effects 341 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:42.780 on the First Nations peoples of Canada. 342 00:23:43.400 --> 00:23:45.080 The story will be familiar to Australians. 343 00:23:45.800 --> 00:23:47.060 Under this policy, 344 00:23:47.280 --> 00:23:48.940 lands set aside under treaty 345 00:23:48.940 --> 00:23:50.520 were insidiously appropriated, 346 00:23:50.600 --> 00:23:52.760 with only a fraction of the original areas 347 00:23:52.760 --> 00:23:54.740 remaining in reserve at this time. 348 00:23:55.580 --> 00:23:57.720 For generations, children were removed 349 00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:59.020 from their families at young ages 350 00:23:59.020 --> 00:24:00.500 and placed in residential schools 351 00:24:00.500 --> 00:24:03.600 where they were, quite simply, brutalized. 352 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:07.160 And when the residential schools were closed, 353 00:24:07.340 --> 00:24:08.900 the last of the 1960s, 354 00:24:08.920 --> 00:24:10.720 we had the 60s scoop, 355 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:12.800 where native children were placed 356 00:24:12.800 --> 00:24:14.220 in non-native foster homes. 357 00:24:14.900 --> 00:24:17.440 And finally, in the present era, 358 00:24:17.560 --> 00:24:18.920 we have the era of education. 359 00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:19.280 In the 1970s, 360 00:24:20.100 --> 00:24:22.380 Now the parents are removed from the children 361 00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:24.280 to populate the jails of the nation. 362 00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:30.520 Disconnecting processes are at work on a global scale. 363 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.180 Referring to the Canadian city of Vancouver, 364 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:35.620 often cited for its beauty and civility, 365 00:24:36.100 --> 00:24:38.880 Bruce Alexander traces a legacy of dislocation, 366 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.600 beginning with the displacement of First Nations peoples, 367 00:24:41.820 --> 00:24:44.700 to the mass importation of Chinese laborers 368 00:24:44.700 --> 00:24:46.560 to work on the railways and the coal mines, 369 00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:51.220 and to the fragmented morass of contemporary Vancouver's largely immigrant population. 370 00:24:52.520 --> 00:24:56.420 And Vancouver and other cities in North America, Australia and elsewhere, 371 00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:01.300 both major and minor, are the destination of too many individuals and families 372 00:25:01.300 --> 00:25:04.120 dispossessed as a result of local and regional conflicts, 373 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:09.100 while others remain for too many years in camps awaiting relocation. 374 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:13.240 I recently met a young Iraqi man, 24 years old, 375 00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.960 who spent seven years interred in a camp for men in the Saudi desert. 376 00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:22.400 He was placed on a plane and sent to southwest Alberta, ostensibly to begin a new life. 377 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:27.860 It's highly unlikely that he will ever return to his homeland or be reunited with his family. 378 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:32.540 As a board member for a newcomer settlement house in Toronto during the early 90s, 379 00:25:32.560 --> 00:25:36.180 I saw his story repeated many times over. Too many times. 380 00:25:38.120 --> 00:25:39.620 We've much to be worried about. 381 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:43.220 These disconnecting processes reach into each of our lives, 382 00:25:43.240 --> 00:25:44.660 our lives and contemporary culture. 383 00:25:45.500 --> 00:25:49.280 Alexander observes that the processes of free market globalization 384 00:25:49.280 --> 00:25:53.800 systematically produce dislocation in contemporary society, 385 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.160 requiring that labor, land, currency and consumer goods 386 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.180 are regulated by laws of supply and demand, 387 00:26:01.520 --> 00:26:05.260 requiring that other, more organic processes be put aside 388 00:26:05.260 --> 00:26:08.340 and severing us from links with family and community. 389 00:26:09.580 --> 00:26:13.220 Alexander goes on to suggest that this process of dislocation 390 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:15.860 is a necessary precursor of addiction 391 00:26:15.860 --> 00:26:21.720 and lies at the root of other chronic problems of contemporary society, 392 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:26.080 including depression, hypochondria, violence and suicide. 393 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.200 The post-colonial writings and discourses of indigenous peoples 394 00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:37.140 referred to earlier add a further dimension to the dislocation that Alexander speaks of. 395 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:40.860 They add that the dislocation experienced under colonization 396 00:26:40.860 --> 00:26:42.800 and subsequent oppressions 397 00:26:42.800 --> 00:26:45.040 has served also to disconnect people 398 00:26:45.040 --> 00:26:48.140 from their intimate and spiritual relationship with the land. 399 00:26:49.340 --> 00:26:52.340 These intimate relations with others and with the land 400 00:26:52.340 --> 00:26:53.600 are fundamental needs. 401 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:56.420