Welcome to this web-based resource in relation to deconstructing addiction!
This resource has been initiated by Anthony Corballis in conjunction with Dulwich Centre Publications. You’ll find here a range of writings about addiction and ways of responding to alcohol and other drug use.
Apart from creating this web-based resource, the Deconstructing Addiction League is a multi-faceted network for persons who wish to be engaged in practices that undermine addiction and support community.
At the level of community, the Deconstructing Addiction League is developing a resource that will assist persons in revising their relationship to alcohol and other drugs. Using the maps from narrative practice, this resource will offer support groups that meet regularly to encourage each other to resist the powerful influence of addiction. These groups will be led by non-professionals who have been through their own experience of substance use revision. Professional knowledge is welcome, but is not a requirement or something that is necessary to sustain the groups. Maps from narrative practice will enable us to maintain a Narrative edge while addressing deadly serious problems in a playful and engaging way.
The League will also be seeking ways of encouraging social workers and therapists etc. to respond to a health care system that is often unjust and unfair to so called ‘addicts/alcoholics’ and their families. The broader political context as it relates to addiction treatment will also be addressed, such as the cultural practices of incarceration, and relations of domination (i.e. adult privilege, gender, race, sexual preference, and so on).
The Deconstructing Addiction League also hopes to provide support for narrative therapists who wish to work in the field of addiction treatment. Oftentimes, narrative therapists and their ideas are disqualified in treatment contexts. Furthermore, the League will hopefully provide a better understanding of how narrative therapists can work with so-called ‘addicts’ in private practice. This is critical, as many persons who seek the consultation of narrative therapists around the topic of addiction are refused. This refusal is unfortunate but somewhat understandable, and one of the working assumptions of the League is that individual therapeutic responses are rarely enough to address the powerful influence of addiction, hence the need for a community-based resource informed by narrative practice. It is our hope that the League can contribute to a situation in which narrative therapists will not have to turn away anyone who is seeking to address issues of ‘addiction’.
The linking of lives around shared themes and the ethic of community is central to the League’s development. Networking and sharing knowledge with regard to fun, good times, and pleasure within the context of self-care is vitally important. Entire families and communities can participate in challenging the culture of consumption.
Please join us! There are a range of ways in which you can become involved in the Deconstructing Addicition League project. For more information about these please click here or email us.
Resource Contents
| On the need for creating a community-based resource for deconstructing addiction informed by narrative practice | by Anonymous |
| "Narrative maps of practice: Proposals for the Deconstructing Addiction League" | by Anthony C. |
| Alcohol, drugs and suffering | by Terry Callahan |
| Externalising questions in relation to addictive thinking | by Trina Crowe |
| Overcoming craving: The use of narrative practices in breaking drug habits | by Har Man-kwong |
| A view from the troops of the Drug War | an interview with Senior Sergeant Bernie Morgan |
| From Mr Sin to Mr Big: A history of Australian Drug Laws by Desmond Manderson | a review by David Denborough |
New perspectives on addiction
Dulwich Centre Newsletter 1997, guest ed. Melissa Raven
| Introduction | by Melissa Raven |
| The politics of drug use | by Melissa Raven |
| Living with the past | a conversation between Kirra James & Loretta Perry |
| Consultations with young men migrating from alcohol's regime | by Lorraine Smith & John Winslade |
| Alcohol in Australia: The intertwining of social and personal histories | an interview with Milton Lewis |
| Challenging the culture of consumption: Rites of passage and communities of acknowledgement | by Michael White |
| Alcohol and men's violence | an interview with Alan Jenkins |
| Alcohol: A drug with many dimensions | by Melissa Raven |
| Tastes of paradise by Wolfgang Schivelbusch | a book review by David Denborough |
Family member’s perspectives
| A mother's perspective | by Mary Lou Palmer |
| Family Connections - young people and drugs | by Sue Davidson |
Writings in relation to moderation/harm reduction
| Abstinence and moderation (read this first) | by Anonymous |
| Talking about self-care in relation to using drugs | by Paul Butterworth |
