Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

T he current study examines the incorporation, negotiation and transformation of a therapeutic text into narrative turns at talk during group therapy sessions for recovering addicts. The repetitions or reformulations of the treatment text into talk provide interactive narrative spaces for the men to try on new identities. In other words, these transformations are personal negotiations and attempts at authenticity of a new, competent, recovering self in their narratives of addiction and recovery. In addition, these transformative operations provide one discursive way for the men to show (dis)alignment with the therapeutic aims of the program. Lastly, by using or reformulating the text in their responses, the men are using new lexicon to describe their world, and possibly, by extension, new concepts in their new local recovery community. Using Discourse Analysis and Conversation Analysis analytic frameworks, this study aims to illustrate the importance of narratives in addiction and substance abuse treatment, as well as highlight the various discursive ways a new identity can be formed and negotiated within a local, institutional community.

Biography

Kristen Lindblom, CPhil received her MA in Linguistics from San Francisco State University and is currently a PhD student in Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include language ideology, masculinity, narratives, discourse analysis and the development of Communities of Practice, particularly with marginalized and vulnerable populations. She was the recipient of the Chancellors Prize 2011-2012 and a Graduate Student Research Mentorship Award for Summer 2013. She is currently conducting fieldwork at an addiction and substance abuse treatment facility in Massachusetts for her dissertation