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This work describes the way in which conversations between drug
users vary and change according to context and circumstances in
ways that suggest that there is no single "truth" about the state
we call "addicted". The central thesis of the book is that the
explanations that drug users give for their drug use make sense not
so much as a source of facts, but as primarily functional
statements shaped by a climate of moral and legal censure.
Consequently, the signficance of drug conversations lies not in
their literal semantics but in the purposes such conversation
serve. The argument raises a number of fundamental issues about the
performative rather than the informative nature of language, about
the nature of the "scientific facts" concerning drug use, and about
the very nature of science itself. Starting with a general overview
of the problems arising from a mechanistic and deterministic view,
the book identifies a need for a new approach to the understanding
of verbal behaviour. Secondly, it gives an account of a new form of
analysis, based on over 500 conversations carried out with drug
users in Scotland and the north of England. In a final data
section, evidence is presented link
In this second edition, the author expands and updates his study of
the true reasons for drug use. Current attitudes towards drug
misuse in the media, government, and even treatment centres, often
exaggerate the pharmacological power of drugs. Their coercive
influence is widely believed to be so great that to experiment with
a drug is tantamount to addiction. The author argues that such
beliefs are largely inaccurate and harmful. Research shows that
explanations for drug use vary according to circumstances. Drugs
users may explain that they have lost their willpower and capacity
for personal decision-making, because this is the explanation
expected of them, but most actually use drugs because they want to
and because they see no good reason for giving them up. Addicted
behaviour is therefore a form of learned helplessness, not an
effect caused by narcotic intake.
First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
The complete and unexpurgated scripts of one of the most celebrated
comedy series ever. Published in its entirety for the first time
and illustrated, The Complete Fawlty Towers will appeal to the
millions of fans who have suffered through endless PBS fundraisers
waiting for the next episode--and anyone who has survived a package
holiday tour. Fawlty Towers is the hotel of every traveler's
nightmare. Basil Fawlty--ill-tempered, henpecked, and
conniving--tries in vain to be master of his house under the
disapproving and ever-watchful eye of his wife, Sybil. The hotel
offers service by Manuel, the incompetent Spanish waiter whose
feeble grasp of English makes for hilarious misunderstandings, and
Polly, the unflappable chambermaid who is Fawlty Towers' only sane
employee. Meals are scorched in the kitchen while adulterers
consort upstairs and chaos reigns all around. For countless fans,
Fawlty Towers is the best-loved bad hotel in the world, and with
publication of The Complete Fawlty Towers they will all have a
chance to relive its outrageous awfulness.
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