CMN 440A (H01) - Honors/The Language of Addiction: Stigma, Social Relations, and Drug Use

How does our culture relate to and talk about people who use drugs? Discussions of the "opioid epidemic" often rely on models of addiction - the "moral model," "disease model," and "psychosocial model" - that emerge from a view of individuals as self-contained, without taking social contexts into account. As a result, people who use drugs - especially those who inject drugs - are stigmatized as morally bankrupt, disease-ridden, or psychosocially maladjusted individuals. This course will explore how stigma functions as a byproduct of a system of social relations in which various forms of inequality are reproduced through the discourses around drugs. Through readings, discussions, and assignments, we will pull back the veil on language and social relationships to better understand how we think about ourselves, our social institutions, and what we are capable of doing about substance misuse.