Dr Helen Keane, School of Sociology, ANU

1-2pm on Monday 21 November in the Larry Saha Room (HA2175)

The constitution of addiction as an objectively verifiable medical disorder is a persistent preoccupation of drug science, most recently in expressed in neuroscientific accounts of the brain dysfunction produced by long term drug use. However, the diagnosis of addiction remains inseparable from evaluations of individual conduct within specific social and medical contexts. This presentation critically examines the reformulation of addiction and substance dependence in the draft of the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V) which is due to be published in 2013. The proposed changes include a return to the language of addiction and a move away from the terminology of substance dependence.  In addition, non-substance based compulsions will be included in the addiction category for the first time.  The paper discusses the implications of these changes, the ambiguities of the notion of mental disorder and the continued salience of judgements about legitimate and illegitimate drug use.