The Drug Addict and Addiction
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Abstract
THERE SEEMS TO BE some theoretical justification for hypothesizing that the sterotypes or cultural imageries of the poor, addict, mentally-ill, homosexual, criminal, and the like not only determine official policies to deal with such people, but also shape or influence the &dquo;scientific&dquo; or &dquo;quasi-scientific&dquo; theories of poverty, addiction, mental illness, homosexuality, criminology, and so forth. There are several studies which can provide direct or indirect support for this hypothesis (cf. Connor, 1972; Goodwin, 1971; Lauer, 1971; Lindesmith, 1968; Mills, 1943; Szasz, 1970, 1974; Thio, 1973; Townsend, 1975). This hypothesis can also be derived from the thesis of the sociology of knowledge advanced by Mannheim (1936) according to which the content and the criteria for validation of scientific theories are socially determined. That is to say that theories of the social sciences as well as those of the natural sciences do