Mad in Ireland is set to present at an international conference at UCD on June 4 focused on more humane ways of understanding addiction than through a ‘disease’ model.
Hosted by the Society for Applied Philosophy and organised by Dr. Georgios Petropoulos and Christina Petropoulou, it is a hybrid conference bringing together philosophers and researchers working on addiction to discuss different ways in which phenomenology can help shed light upon and reach a better understanding of addiction.
Phenomenology challenges conceptions of addiction that treat it as a personal problem (i.e. a personality deficit) or solely as a brain disease (Volkow and Fowler, 2000) and focuses on the embodied, relational and affective aspects of addiction taking into account the social context, the human body, feelings and the meanings that humans co-create.
The conference has the following 4 objectives:
1) To examine the extent to which phenomenology can function as a theoretical framework that shifts our assumptions about addictive behaviour.
2) To reconsider the categories that have been used historically to capture “pathological” or “deviant” behaviours of people with addictions.
3) To develop the conceptual tools that can help us understand how addicted persons relate to the world, others and their own body.
4) To discuss healing strategies and how important it is to cultivate new ways of relating to oneself, others and the world in the process of recovery.
Martha Griffin, Clóda Ní Greachain and Líam Mac Gabhann of Mad in Ireland will co present on deconstructing ‘addiction’ within a living experience world view”.
Find information and details of attendance here.