Addiction and the Medicalisation of Conspicuous Behaviour New Critical Perspectives /Editors: Bruce M. Z. Cohen, Martin Harbusch, Jo Reichertz

Descripción

Addiction and the Medicalisation of Conspicuous Behaviour

New Critical Perspectives

• Book
• © 2026

• Includes analysis of passionate behaviours which have not yet been medicalised including sport, work, and social media

• Discusses new empirical work on ‘addictions’, including psychedelics, pornography, opioids, and gambling

• Provides the first social constructionist volume on the medicalisation of passionate behaviours and ‘addictions’

About this book

This volume critically interrogates the dominant understanding of ‘addiction’ and ‘addicts’. It examines the proliferation of the addiction concept by psychiatry and other psy-professions, exploring the processes and underlying drivers of this form of medicalisation. Through discussions from leading scholars in the field on gambling, smoking, opioids, and drug use, as well as the passionate engagement with social media, sport, sex, pornography, opioids, and psychedelics, the collection argues that addiction is better understood as a sociological rather than psychiatric phenomenon. It contends that the discourse of addiction is fundamentally political in nature, rather than purely medical. In doing so, this timely collection fills a significant gap in academic knowledge. It will be of strong interest to scholars and students of mental health and addiction, as well as to critical practitioners working in these areas.

Table of contents (14 chapters)

1. Front Matter
2. Pages i-lviii
3. Theoretical Perspectives
   1. Front Matter
   2. Pages 1-1
   3. The Ecological Niche of Behavioural Addictions
      • Baptiste Brossard, Emmanuelle Larocque, Nicolas Moreau, Dahlia Namian, Mélissa Roy

      Pages 3-24

   4. The Triangle of Medicalisation: Pathways for Interactive Negotiation of Diseases, Disorders and Addictions
      • Martin Harbusch

      Pages 25-51

   5. The Communicative Construction of Addiction
      • Jo Reichertz

      Pages 53-77

   6. A Marxist Theory of Addiction
      • Bruce M. Z. Cohen

      Pages 79-101

4. Negotiating ‘Addiction’
   1. Front Matter
   2. Pages 103-103
   3. The Social Construction of ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Addicts: How Relabelling Addiction Shaped the Opioid Epidemic
      • Thaddeus Müller

      Pages 105-125

   4. Excessive Appetites and Disarming Innovations: The Shifting Socio-Materialities of Nicotine and Gambling Addiction
      • Mark Elam

      Pages 127-148

   5. ‘Addiction’ and Agency at the Threshold of Infinite Pornographic Access
      • Kris Taylor

      Pages 149-168

5. Conspicuous Behaviours as ‘Addictions’
   1. Front Matter
   2. Pages 169-169
   3. Wellness, Addiction and Temperance
      • Richard Hammersley

      Pages 171-195

   4. Using Sports: Constructing Extremity as Addiction
      • Lars Arntsen, Nancy D. Campbell

      Pages 197-218

   5. From Medicalisation to Cultural Embrace: Drug Foundationalism Versus Techné in the Psychedelic Revival
      • Tehseen Noorani

      Pages 219-238

6. Media, Political and Public Discourse
   1. Front Matter
   2. Pages 239-239
   3. Addiction Discoveries: Hyping and Spinning the Superiority of Neuroscience
      • Matilda Hellman

      Pages 241-263

   4. Social Media, Dark Patterns and Contemporary Discourses of Addiction
      • Cherie Lacey, Ian Goodwin, Antonia Lyons

      Pages 265-285

   5. The Instrumentalization of the Concept of ‘Gambling Addiction’: A Discourse Analysis of German Parliamentary Debates
      • Gerd Möll

      Pages 287-306

   6. Aesthetic Pathologisation: Cinema, Psychiatry and Sex Addiction
      • Baptiste Brossard, Benjamin Hemmings

      Pages 307-329

7. Back Matter
8. Pages 331-356

Reviews

“We desperately need a more intelligent, thoughtful and sociologically literate conversation about addiction, and this important book is a significant part of that.” (Johann Hari, author of The New York Times’ best-seller, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs”)

“This is an outstanding collection. Through a series of dazzling individual essays, it illuminates key aspects of addiction, challenging conventional thinking about the field and, ultimately, laying the groundwork for a bold new agenda for critical sociological addiction research.” “An essential volume for anyone interested in critical understandings of addiction – and, indeed, in the wider application of cutting-edge sociological thought to urgent social issues in general. “I absolutely loved this book! Hugely impressive project; it’s going to be a fantastic contribution to the field.” (Gerda Reith, Professor of Social Science, University of Glasgow, UK)

“I absolutely loved this book! Hugely impressive project; it’s going to be a fantastic contribution to the field.” (Gerda Reith, Professor of Social Science, University of Glasgow, UK)

“This timely book brings together a thought-provoking collection of theoretical and empirical analyses, demonstrating the unique value of sociological approaches to addiction in its contemporary and multiplying forms. With topics ranging from the cultivation of risk in extreme sports to the technical mediation of nicotine consumption and gambling, the volume rigorously challenges reductive psychiatric frameworks. Moving beyond critique, it offers an expanded and generative conceptual vocabulary to better understand experiences of over-attachment, passionate involvement and boundary transgression.” (Helen Keane, Professor of Sociology, Australian National University)

“The critical perspectives articulated in this book demand an answer to the question ‘does addiction science cause unintended harm by reinforcing historic power inequalities?’. The book will help addiction researchers across all disciplines to navigate the uncertainties raised by these questions.” (Lee Hogarth, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Exeter, UK)

Editors and Affiliations

• University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

  Bruce M. Z. Cohen

• Social Sciences, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

  Martin Harbusch

• Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany

  Jo Reichertz

About the editors

Bruce M. Z. Cohen is an Associate Professor in sociology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Martin Harbusch is Professor for research methods at the University of Siegen, Germany.

Jo Reichertz is Emeritus Professor of sociology and communication science at the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

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Bibliographic Information

• Hardcover ISBN 978-3-032-06312-0
• Published: 03 January 2026
• Series ISSN 2731-5266
• Series E-ISSN 2731-5274
• Edition Number 1
• Number of Pages nLVIII, 356
• Number of Illustrations 3 b/w illustrations
• TopicsMedical Sociology, Psychiatry, Critical Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, general, Health Psychology

Keywords

• addiction

• science and technology studies

• social constructionism

• sociology of mental health

• medicalisation

• social deviance

• Behavioural addictions

• Critical addiction studies

• Neoliberalism and addiction

• Psychedelic therapy

• Gambling disorder

• Pornography addiction

• Communicative constructivism

• DSM and psychiatric diagnosis

• Sociology of Consumption

• Edgework

• Risk society

• Wellness industry

• Marxist theory of addiction

• Technological mediation