Myth‐making and opiate abuse: An early symbolic interactionist theory of addiction in the fieldwork of Alfred Lindesmith and its opposition

Abstract

The personal files and notes from Alfred Lindesmith’s only excursion into the field (1935–1937) give a particularly informative view of addiction and addict mythmaking about opiates and opiate addiction. Lindesmith’s work, overseen by Herbert Blumer, was the first empirical validation of the symbolic interactionist perspective and produced a theory of opiate addiction that is still respected and used by sociologists, psychologists, and substance abuse experts. The theory itself produced its own mythmaking in the attempts of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to refute and suppress Lindesmith’s work and in the construction of its own euphoria mythology of addiction, addicts, and Lindesmith.

Keywords:

• Alfred Lindesmith
• drug addiction
• Herbert Blumer
• symbolic interaction
• drug treatment
• addict
• law

Acknowledgments

Debts of gratitude are owed to Joe Gusfield, John Galliher, Al Cohen, the Lindesmith family, the Washington DC staff of the National Archives, the Harry S. Truman Library, and the Pennsylvania State University Archives for their support of and contributions to this paper.