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Identifier

000430169

Title

Ιδεολογικά συμφραζόμενα και αναδόμηση του εαυτού στις ομάδες αυτοβοήθειας : οι κοινότητες των Κ.Ο.Π.Α. (Κλάμπ οικογενειών με προβλήματα από το αλκοόλ) στην Κρήτη

Alternative Title

Ideological components and the restructure of the self in mutuall-aid groups : the case of clubs of alcohol-related problems in Crete

Author

Βάββος, Ανδρέας

Thesis advisor

Τζανάκης Μανόλης

Reviewer

Γκούνης Κωνσταντίνος
Σερντεδάκις Νίκος

Abstract

The emergence of self-help and mutual-aid groups is a recent phenomenon in human history. These communities construct moral systems based on solidarity and communal living. They are typically constituted as social islets that doubt ethical values of western societies, such as individualism and consumerism. However, there has of late been supported that in many cases, they reproduce the individualizing, psychologizing and depoliticised accounts on the causes of social phenomena. This contradictory interplay between community and individualism comprise a riddle for many social scientists. Drawing on marxist, foucauldian and post-modern approaches to the notion of subjectivity, this article focuses on the ideological underpinnings of the processes of subjectivation that occur in the context of Clubs of Families with Alcohol-related Problems (CFAP) in the region of Crete. After briefly portraying the historical roots of self-help and mutual-aid groups and describing the dominant and alternative conceptualizations of addiction and alcoholism, I attempt to historicize the route and the conceptual tools of CFAP. The empirical material, analyzed using thematic analysis, consists of fieldwork notes, proceedings of their weekly meetings and interviews provided by CFAP members. Three themes comprise a story entitled: Travelling from the world of falsehood to the world of truth. The themes with their subthemes are: 1) Individualization and ideological underpinnings of marginalized lifestyles: a) Trapped in the vicious cycle of alienation and substance and b) Alcoholic as a failed entrepreneur of him/herself 2) The rupture with addiction and the emergence of a collective subject: a) CFAP as a topos of authentic human relationships and b) The retrieval of citizenship and the construction of a counter-discourse 3) Renegotiating the relationship with the self: a) Sobriety as an art of living and b) Producing happy and responsible citizens. Participants depicted their biographical transition from alcoholism to sobriety in terms of a shift from falsehood to truth. Community's regime of truth pushes them to re-interpret their past choices, experience the present with distinct conceptual tools and imagine the future in radically altered terms. This restructuring of the self is triggered by the conflicting processes of inventing a psychological self and producing a communal existence. The discussion focuses on the implications of this symbiotic relationship between psychologization and communalism both for the Greek self and for the current understandings of addiction. I conclude by bringing up the issue of repositioning addiction in its psychosocial, political and economic context.

Language

Greek

Subject

Addiction

Clubs of families with alcohol-related problems

Mutual-aid

Self-help

Sobriety

Αλληλοβοήθεια

Αυτοβοήθεια

Εξάρτηση

Κλάμπ οικογενειών με προβλήματα από το αλκοόλ