Relationality and identity migration among

methamphetamine users:
An exploratory study

Presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Georgia Sociological

Association, Morehouse College, Atlanta, 30 October, 2009

Paul Boshears
The European Graduate School
“ I mean crystal meth can take you down really, really
dark paths. And you’ve seen, you hear horror stories –
I just really don’t want to be that person….
”
(22-year-old white male)

That process through which individuals develop

problematic use of methamphetamine is the
same mechanism by which they can
overcome their problematic usage.
 Relationality

What insights might a focus upon the relational dynamics of

selfhood provide to understanding how
methamphetamine practices are negotiated throughout
the drug-use career?
The interdependencies that form as methamphetamine
users pursue opportunities: to practice meth use, to
disclose the consequences of their practices, and to
display recovering identities, illustrate a fundamentally
relational character to methamphetamine use.
 Assuming the Self
• “Who I am”
am is fundamentally a social event, it is not a
substance or kernel that contains my essence.
• This performative self (Butler, 2005) is based upon and
adjusted within my social and physical environments.
• My uniqueness is determined by my performance of my
roles within these environments; “who I am” develops within
a context.
“We learn from our experiences” we revise in light of
experiences
“Being true to ourselves” references past performances

Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself.

New York: Fordham University Press.
 Based on our ethnographic study of 100 current and
former users of methamphetamine, we found that
participants in this study overwhelmingly, reference
the social pressures and their environments that
initiate, spur, and inhibit their use or cessation of
methamphetamine and other drugs.

In privileging the social component of addiction, we

contribute to the developing literature on the social
conceptualization of addiction by interpreting our
data in light of this model.
(Latkin, Knowlton, Hoover, & Mandell, 1999; Weinberg, 2000; May 2001;
Gibson, Acquah, & Robinson, 2004; Pilkington, 2007; Graham, Young, &
Wood, 2008; Adams, 2008)
 Migrating Identities
Hughes (2007, 2009) proposes a social
conceptualization of addiction emphasizing
substance use “as a set of embodied social
practices.”
“Addiction” is a discursive practice – a narrative that
people perform. In performing this discourse those
that practice substance use affirm and reinvigorate
their identities as “addicts.”
The popular mode in which “addiction” is thought of
and discussed limits how we can understand drug
use practices as well as how we might transform the
phenomenon.
 Identity Migration
There are three stages in the identity migration:
1) Apprenticeship
2) Disclosure
3) Re-covering

Hughes, K. (2007) Migrating identities: The relational constitution of drug use

and addiction. Sociology of Health & Illness, 29(5), 673-691
Hughes, K., G. Valentine, & C. Kenten. (2009) The time of our lives: Towards
a space-time understanding of Internet gambling. The British Journal of
Sociology (forthcoming).
Identity Migration:
Migration
1) Apprenticeship – methamphetamine use is a learned
behavior.

So all my dad’s friends were junkies....from the time I

was twelve I’d seen these dudes firing dope,
shooting dope up.... But one day I come in and I
said, “Let me try some of that.” I poured some in a
spoon, shot some water in it―the dude was trying to
tell my dad, “You need to help him or let me help him
or something.” Before he had it out I had it pulled up
and fired it in my arm just like a champ. Just like I
was a professional at it.
(34-year-old white male)
Identity Migration:
Migration
2) Disclosure – Problematic use as performative
speech act.
The first time I tried not to do it on the weekend I
said, “Well, uh, you got a problem.”
(47-year-old white male)

I knew I was going to eventually lose all my children

and everything I had if I didn’t quit [....] And I’m like, “I
don’t want to be one of these people. I don’t want to
be one of these people that their life has fell apart
around them and you ain’t got enough sense to get
your act cleaned up.”
(48-year-old white male)
Identity Migration:
Migration
3) Re-covering – cessation of drug practices are now
substituted with recovery practices.
In order to succeed you have to surrender and you
have to be willing to become teachable, you have to
be willing to take directions, and you have to realize
that you’re [...] not in charge.
(42-year-old white male)

Because when you’ve quit doing it you have a mental

break. You have a mental break from your normal
self [....] You’re not delusional but you have pretty
much lost your mind. You have to regroup, find your
real mindset again.
(52-year-old white male)
 Conclusion & Future Studies
There is a need within the “addiction science” (NIDA)
community to develop evocative-analytical portrayals
of substance use (Hockey & Allen-Collinson, 2009).

Future studies might investigate other substance

abusing communities and their inter-group dynamics

Policy development which calls for greater community

responsibility for substance use and prevalence of
use.
 With great thanks
Our participants

Dr. Miriam Boeri

David Gibson

Liam Harbry

Karen Rommelfanger