PSYCHOSOCIAL INTEGRATION:
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DISLOCATION THEORY OF ADDICTION
R.Marcus Gaudry
Nov 18, 2009

My friends,colleagues and all our guests:

Let me begin by thanking you all for allowing me a moment to communicate with you, and I hope you find what I have to share helpful and informative.

Many of us, I would imagine, either know of someone or know someone personally who has, for all intents and purposes, been transformed from being a familiar person into a slave of some destructive habit or another - whether it be the use of a substance, a process such as gambling or video gaming, or even a lifestyle that lends itself to self harm. In this, we can clearly see that the term "addiction", applies to much more than simply substance abuse. Some of us may have even endured such a transformation into slavery ourselves. In either case, or possibly for some of us here today in both cases, we may be finding ourselves at odds with a question that begs to be answered: "What is the cause of the ever growing epidemic of what we call addiction worldwide?" Unfortunately, this is not an easy question to answer. For centuries, philosophers, theologians, researchers and therapists have proposed several theories or 'models' that attempt to formulate an explanation, most of which appear to conflict with each other in several ways. As a result, 'treatment' for addiction, or any effort to end this cycle of "self imposed slavery" has often been met with results that leave much to be desired, and preventative measures taken to date would appear to have had minimal results at best, and dismal results at worst. I say this with relative confidence because the problem of addiction continues to grow at what should be considered an alarming rate. In several of his publications, most notably his book "Globalization of Addiction", Bruce K.Alexander presents what has been described as a 'radical rethink of the nature of addiction'. This concept is generally referred to as the "Dislocation Theory", which is based on research of historical trends in addiction, and the necessity of Psychosocial Integration.

"‘Psychosocial integration’ is a profound interdependence between individual and society that normally grows and develops throughout each person’s lifespan (Alexander,2008)." This interdependence has been recognised by many thinkers, such as Plato, Alfred Adler, and Erich Fromm to name just a few. The term itself has had many alternate names, for example 'social cohesion', 'belonging', 'community', or even 'culture'. All of these terms, among many others, can easily be used quite interchangably with 'psychosocial integration'. The point is that historically, we can see clear connections with the breakdown of this social cohesion, this psychosocial integration, and the advent of addiction in our various cultures. What can be seen repeatedly in history is that as psychosocial intergration breaks down, a sense of dislocation, or a profound lack of belonging arises, often followed by a loss of a sense of identity. What happens next is these same people, now dislocated from their communities and cultures, and ultimately their sense of self, latch on to something else in an attempt to gain some sort of identity and belonging back. It is important to make one point very clear right now. It is speculated often enough that the term 'dislocation',originally used by Karl Polanyi, necessarily implies a geographic separation. This is simply not the case. In the broad sense of the word, dislocation denotes a social and psychological separation from one's society; or quite literally a disconnect from one's social structure on a psychosocial level. This can befall anyone, whether they never leave their home or if they are in fact geographically displaced. "It refers to an enduring lack of psychosocial integration, no matter how it comes about. People can endure dislocation for a time. However, severe, prolonged dislocation eventually leads to unbearable despair, shame, emotional anguish, boredom, and bewilderment. It regularly precipitates suicide21 and less direct forms of self-destruction.22(Alexander,2008)."

In his book, which much of this presentation is based on, Alexander uses the dislocation, the disruption of the psychosocial integration of the aboriginal community as a prime example for historical research. Similar historical evidence can be found in other works he has published as well. Also, it is aptly pointed out that dislocation can be looked at as a poverty of the spirit, which is akin to what Jesus said in the beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:1 NIV) Common understanding of these words is that Jesus was not referring to material wealth, but instead a poverty and a wealth of the spiritual condition.What is also clearly inferred from this teaching is a sense of fellowship, or community, based on spiritual (to my mind, not necessarily 'religious') principles. When we regard dislocation and addiction in this context, it becomes clear that while providing food, shelter, money and resources are all good in and of themselves, these are not the things that can heal a spirit caught in the slavery of addiction, nor provide the psychosocial integration that so many find themselves so sorely lacking. In this theory, dislocation can occur from many different events; wars, natural disasters, child abuse and/or neglect, or economic upheaval. Also, as historical evidence will reveal, it can either be imposed upon a culture or even chosen voluntarily by the pursuit of wealth in a 'window of opportunity', a 'gold rush' or any such advent that presents itself in a 'free market society'.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

The use of the word "addiction" as an inference towards a disease revolving around the abuse or misuse of drugs or alcohol is a comparatively new concept, appearing as such in the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time in 1933. A more traditional definition, which has been accepted since prior to the 19th century is similar to the Latin word from which it is derived: To be 'as a slave to'. This traditional meaning, which is almost as old as the English language itself, is still relevant and retains its importance of our understanding of addiction today. Although the the disease meaning is more commonly understood, when we consider the traditional definition, it is evident that addiction extends itself far beyond substance use,misuse and abuse or dependency.

Historically, it would appear evident that the root of addiction stems from a breakdown in psychosocial integration - which can be called dislocation. As indicated earlier, there are a number of ways this breakdown can occur, but what comes to the forefront rapidly is a pattern of dislocation resulting from efforts of economic growth based on a 'free market' social structure. What we see in our free market society, both in history and in modern society, is a distinct requirement that each participant in a competitive free market pursue their individual goal, setting themselves apart from any loyalty towards family, friends or community (ex.neighbourhood,congregation,clan,tribe,etc.). Although we have seen this occur geographically in history, for example European explorers and traders, it is not by any means limited to a geographic displacement, especially when we look at the contemporary free market, which apparently demands a kind of dominance over every aspect of life, and, as the current model works, the job of the government would appear to ultimately be to protect and expand the competitive markets.As western society is largely based on free market principles which tend to produce dislocation, western society to some degree or another is generally in a state of dislocation, and since the free market model of society provides the model of globalization, it can be argued that mass dislocation is being mass produced.
Vancouver as example
Aboriginal people living in scattered villages and camps around what we call Burrard Inlet today had seen European explorers, gold miners, and fur traders come and go, tasted the dangers of trade whiskey and survived epidemics of disease brought on by these "boat people" for centuries. It was not until 1862,when British settlers came in full force, bringing with them European civilization to the land that they, the aboriginals, found themselves overwhelmed. Yes, some natives certainly managed to profit from trade and literacy, but what came in with that was certainly a great deal of geographic displacement, but more importantly a distinct loss of their culture as European civilization continued to grow, increasingly forcing the native people to assimilate. This assimilation policy, which was applied across Canada, very nearly succeeded in removing native cultural practices and languages, what it failed to do was integrate many, if not most, of the native population into the free market society, which left them completely dislocated.This is not to imply that there were no "drunken Indians" before the period of cultural disintegration and assimilation, but it does indicate that alcoholism within aboriginal communities was not the riotous problem it has become until the advent of mass dislocation.

Addiction as a response to dislocation

Given limitations to the amount of time I have today, I cannot go into as much detail as I would like to investigating the historical evidence available which clearly reveals that addiction is not very common apart from dislocation, but becomes very common within societies where dislocation is prevalent. I do invite you, though, to look into the trend linking dislocation and addiction for yourself, and have provided for you a short reference list to begin your search.

Is dislocation 'the cause' of addiction? I personally cannot answer that definitively, but historical trends and personal experiences certainly provide a great deal of evidence to link the two. What seems to occur is, as a result of being dislocated, one tends to lose a sense of identity, and then latch onto something else in severe cases. In this attachment, one often finds some sense of identity, or a niche in which they "belong" (junkie,drunkard,barfly,gang member,jailbird, etc). While this 'new identity' is often filled with negative connotations,some identity is better than no identity at all. In this perspective, addiction becomes a sort of coping mechanism for dislocation, and is, after a form, a counter-culture attempt at developing a kind of psychosocial integration.

IN CONCLUSION:

So the question remains: "What, if anything, is the solution?" It would appear that free market society is not going away, so I would think that what is necessary is to call for measures to be taken that will limit the prevalence of dislocation, hence hopefully also limit the ruination caused by addiction which tends to follow dislocation. A good start to this end would be to foster a paradigm shift which encourages strong psychosocial integration, thereby creating a culture of prevention by providing alternative means of belonging apart from from addiction, thereby hopefully limiting the amount of damage being done, which may provide better opportunities to heal the wounds we have already suffered by building on measures that already exist towards "treatment" or perhaps more accurately, recovery -of which there is even today in existence a sort of subculture.

The point here is that there is no "quick fix" to the quagmire we find ourselves in, but there is hope for recovery. Though it is bound to be a process, and will take time, that does not mean it is not worth pursuing. After all, there is an adage, I don't remember who said it, that says :

"Do not give up on your dreams just because it will take too long accomplish. The time will pass anyway."

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PSYCHOSOCIAL INTEGRATION:
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DISLOCATION THEORY OF ADDICTION
R.Marcus Gaudry
Nov 18, 2009

References:
Alexander, Bruce K. the globalisation of addiction Oxford university press, 2008

http://www.amazon.ca/Globalisation-Addiction-Bruce-Alexander/dp/0199230129

Alexander, Bruce K. the roots of addicition in free market society April 2001, ISBN 0-88627-274-2

http://www.communityaware.ca/bruce/roots_of_addiction_in_a_free_market_society.pdf

Alexander, Bruce K. a historical analysis of addiction

http://www.carmha.ca/siaph2008/readings/documents/BruceKAlexander-AHistoricalAnalysisofAddiction.pdf

www.communityaware.ca/ dislocation theory of addiction