This article, titled “Conceiving of addicted pleasures: A ‘modern’ paradox,” published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, delves into the complex and often paradoxical relationship between pleasure and addiction, particularly in the context of injecting drug use. Authored by Fay Dennis, the research draws on qualitative data from people who inject drugs in London, UK, to explore how participants themselves conceptualize pleasure and the inherent tensions that arise from these conceptions.
The central premise of the article highlights a strong sense among participants that while drug use can be pleasurable, it is often not, or cannot, be openly acknowledged or conceived of in this way. This difficulty is attributed to a “distinctly ‘modern’ refrain to pleasure”. Drawing on Bruno Latour’s concept of the ‘Moderns’, the article posits that modern thought relies on a separation of nature and culture, where pleasure is associated with the ‘free’ subject and addiction with the determined brain or object. This binary renders pleasure and addiction as antithetical, making it challenging to conceive of pleasure within the context of ‘addictive’ drug use. Consequently, pleasure has been historically “hard to conceive of in relation to illicit drug use,” especially with substances like heroin and crack cocaine, and further still with injecting these substances.
The author explains that the absence of pleasure in drug research has a long political history tied to the control of drug users, who are perceived to threaten neoliberal ideals of autonomy and choice. Within this framework, drug use is seen as lacking ‘freedom’, ‘rationality’, and thus ‘pleasure’. Addiction is often framed as “compulsion,” contrasting sharply with ‘free choice’, leading to the notion that “pleasure (as free) and addiction (as compulsion) emerge as antithetical”. This separation is evident in addiction sciences, where theories divide drug use between ‘liking’ (subjective pleasure) and ‘wanting’ (incentive salience, related to automaticity and craving), with ‘liking’ reportedly decreasing as drug use becomes more compulsive.
Through participant accounts, the article reveals that these imposed separations often collapse and multiply, demonstrating that pleasure and addiction co-exist, “always in tension”. Participants frequently express “mixed feelings,” “love/hate,” or “sweet and sour” experiences, indicating that pleasure is “nearly always in tension, belonging neither to nature nor society, caught up in sociomaterial networks and between affects”. The research employed a “montage” of qualitative methods, including “creative” interviews using body mapping and participant observation, to “notice” quieter and less communicable forms of pleasure.
Ultimately, the article advocates for a more complicated and inclusive understanding of pleasure—a “pleasure-in-tension”—in the drug and addictions field. This conceptualization can help acknowledge pleasure where it is least conceivable, particularly for those often dismissed as addicted or dependent, and offers potential for “new ways of knowing, experiencing and also intervening with drugs” that are more attuned to the complexities of lived experience. By disrupting the idea of pleasure as solely “freely chosen,” the article opens doors for more nuanced and positive discussions about drug experiences in treatment practice and policy.
Reference for the Article:
Dennis, F. (2017). Conceiving of addicted pleasures: A ‘modern’ paradox. International Journal of Drug Policy, 49, 150–159.
