The narrative dimension of substance use

1. The narrative dimension of substance use Sveinung Sandberg, University of Oslo Sébastien Tutenges, University of Aarhus

2. The nature of narratives • A story is a form of discourse that “has a temporal dimension. The story has a beginning, middle, and an ending […]. The story is held together by recognizable patterns of events” (Sarbin 1986: 3). • A story is “a skeletal description of the fundamental events” (Franzosi 1998: 519], which “represents cause and effect relations through its sequencing of events” (Polletta et al 2011). • Stories organize our experiences and give them meaning. They draw selectively on experiences, make a point, and reflect the identity or self-story of the narrator. • In linguistic theory narratives have a well-formed structure. • However, because listeners know similar stories, in actual talk they do not need this to be effective. Sometimes a narrator only needs to hint at it for the listener to ‘hear’ the full story.

3. Narrative criminology

4. Narratives of substance use • Thomas: Cannabis has changed my personality. Towards becoming more free and less obsessed with social rules, patterns. I was really afraid of being different and dressing alternatively, being noticed. • Sveinung: It's the substance itself which brings this about? • Thomas: It can just as well be the actual thought of freedom. In that it is a subculture with a strong view of the law and rules, many anarchists. People often become different politically, more aware of themselves and the world in a different way. There has always been the possibility that I could be arrested. I have been one of the others, not felt like a part of society.

5. The hidden narrative • Sveinung: To chase the optimal high, is that common? • Daniel: […] Time just floats. That’s the same about everything, everything you see and do, you come to a certain “supreme” [in English] superiority, see? If you manage to keep it there. You don’t manage to keep it there. I understand your concept, I know what you are trying to get at. It’s like a spiritual experience. Like the Indians, they used hashish to come to, to get to …. • Sveinung: Another place? • Daniel: Another place. Yes, generally. When you do amphetamines for many days, so many weeks, then it’s not the same anymore. Cause amphetamines is chemical, so it’s not the same. […]

6. How can they be analysed? • Narratives analysis typically treat stories as retrospective constructs that rework past events for present purposes. • Little attention is given to how stories connect people with the future, pointing ahead and inspiring conduct. • Substance can be enactments of narratives and people sometimes use substances to realise particular stories about the self. • Stories create action and events because people act in accordance with the stories that they are familiar with and that prevail in their social environment. • Thus, we need to elaborate the cognitive, justificatory and institutional mechanisms by which narratives promote harmful action.

7. Building a repertoire of drinking stories • Sarah: We write in the diary who got most drunk, who slept with who, and all the stuff we did […]. • Tine: It will be fun one day to look back and say ‘oh yeah, we did that too’, and ‘that was just so much fun’. • Sarah: And I mean, it will be a whole year before we can come back to Sunny Beach. • Natasha: So now we’ve got some memories. • Sarah: Also, because sometimes you can’t really remember everything you did, but the others will remember it. And it’s fun too to sit together and write it all down. • Natasha: With this [diary], we can make it through an entire school year […].

8. The importance of “having tried it” • Morten: “We were a group of friends that had certain opinions, and wanted to try the same stuff as the musicians we liked, it was kind of exclusive.” • Mads: “I had thought about for more than a year. I read a lot about it on the internet, did a lot of research. I already had a pipe. Then I bought two grams of a friend, went home and had ‘the time of my life’”. • Jonas: “I had so many opinions about the drug that I wanted to try for myself, in order to know what I was talking about”. • Signe: “I was happy about having done it, to be able to say that I’d done it. That’s the way it works”.

9. Conclusion • Alcohol: A good drinking story involved a large intake of alcohol combined with incidents such as accidents, passing out, or engaging in unusual or daring behavior. • Cannabis: Use of cannabis was a good story per see for many, but for those who used a lot it, it had to be combined with unexpected behavior such as eating or laughing a lot or experiencing alternative states of consciousness. • Both: Good substance use stories break with the conventional. They are also closely linked to self-narratives of “having lived”. • Most importantly: Stories is a key motivating factor for substance use and should be studies as such. • Substance use is enactment of stories.