In this important contribution to the field, Ilana Mountian critically analyses discourses surrounding drug addiction, drug prohibition, treatment and prevention, and highlights new ways of understanding the role that gender plays in the ethics of drug use across cultures.

The book analyses the discourses of religion, criminality and medicine, and shows how they, combined with key historical events, affect our views of drug use and drug users based on gender, race and class.

The book draws on research from a variety of fields to provide alternative conceptual and methodological perspectives on the subject, including:

critical theory

gender studies

post-colonial studies

psychoanalysis

philosophy.

Cultural Ecstasies is an innovative study of drugs and addiction, and will be of great interest to students, researchers and professionals working in psychology, sociology, social work, health care, criminology, and allied disciplines.

Contents

Introduction 1. Conceptualising the Social Imaginary 2. Historical Discourses of Drugs 3. Discourses of Addiction 4. Drug Use and the Social Imaginary 5. Gender in the Social Imaginary of Drugs 6. Drug Policies.

Author Bio

Ilana Mountian is an Honorary Research Fellow and a member of the Discourse Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She also currently holds a postdoctoral research position at the Universidade de São Paolo, Brazil. Her research practice involves the application of inter-disciplinary perspectives, including critical theories, gender studies, post-colonial studies and psychoanalysis, to the study of drug use, immigration and gender.