Alfred R. Lindesmith: Difference between revisions

|birth_place = [[Clinton Falls Township, Steele County, Minnesota|Clinton Falls Township, Steele County]], Minnesota, U.S.

|death_place = [[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]], Indiana, U.S.

|signature = Alfred R Lindesmith signature.jpg|125px

'''Alfred Ray Lindesmith''' (August 3, 1905 – February 14, 1991) was an [[Indiana University (Bloomington)|Indiana University]] professor of [[sociology]]. He was among the early scholars providing a rigorous and thoughtful account of the nature of [[Substance dependence|addiction]]. He was a critic of legal prohibitions against addictive drugs, arguing that such prohibitions had adverse societal effects. Lindesmith's work in drug policy and addiction at Indiana U. was an element of progressivism, along with the landmark work of Alfred Kinsey and his associates at The Kinsey Institute, under the supervision of IU President Herman Wells .<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Keys|first1=David Patrick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfwVNigwo4IC|title=Confronting the Drug Control Establishment: Alfred Lindesmith as a Public Intellectual|last2=Galliher|first2=John F.|date=2000-01-01|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-4393-4|language=en}}</ref>

Lindesmith's interest in [[psychoactive drug|drugs]] began at the [[University of Chicago]], where he was trained in [[social psychology]] by Herbert Blumer and Edwin Sutherland, earning his doctorate in 1937. His education there was a mixture of the analyticalmethodological and theoretical, a balance that would later appear in his drug studies. The work at Chicago involved research with [[symbolic interactionism|interactionist]] theory, including the research of Chicago's [[Herbert Blumer]], emphasizing the idea of [[self-concept]] in human interaction.

The fact that Lindesmith's work threatened the emerging demonization of heroin, etc., is clear from how the [[Federal Bureau of Narcotics]] (FBN)—predecessor of the [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]]—worked to discredit him. This is outlined in a paper by Galliher, Keys, and Elsner, "Lindesmith v. Anslinger: An Early Government Victory in the Failed [[War on Drugs]]".<ref>John F. Galliher, David P. Keys, Michael Elsner, "Lindesmith v. Anslinger: An Early Government Victory in the Failed War on Drugs." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Winter, 1998), pp. 661–682</ref> As early as 1939, FBN director [[Harry J. Anslinger|Harry Anslinger]] had the Chicago District Supervisor of the Bureau notify Indiana University that one of their professors was a drug addict. An internal FBN memo also suggests that, some years later, a wire- tap may have been placed on Lindesmith's phone by the Bureau. Incidentally, there is no evidence that Lindesmith ever used illegal drugs. As Galliher et al. point out, "the targeting of Lindesmith was possible because Lindesmith acted virtually alone in standing up against federal drug control policies."

Professor [[Nils Bejerot]] argued that Lindesmith made wrong conclusions about what caused the low abuse of opium in the late 1940s in England. Lindesmith had noticed that England in the 1940s had very liberal narcotics laws (see the [[Rolleston Committee]] Report of 1924) and low drug abuse and drawdrew the conclusion that the liberal drug laws contributed to a low abuse of opium. Drug addiction was by the Rolleston Committee seen as a personal problem that could be treated by a family doctor. Bejerot – who was very familiar with the discussion about drug policy in the UK and had studied epidemiology and medical statistics at the [[London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine]] in 1963 – drew the opposite conclusion. He Theargued instead that the low abusenumber of drugsdrug abusers in England until the 1950s was the cause for theof liberal drug laws in England. When the number of addicts of heroin in England doubled every sixteenth monthmonths from 1959 to 1968 became, the British government was forced to implement more restrictive drug laws.<ref name="bejerot">[{{Cite web |url=http://www.nilsbejerot.se/om.htm |title=Nils Bejerot: Narkotika och Narkomani, 1975] |access-date=2008-04-08 |archive-date=2017-02-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221232045/http://www.nilsbejerot.se/om.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.drugtext.org/Addiction/changing-images-of-the-addict-and-addiction.html Rachel Lart BRITISH MEDICAL PERCEPTION FROM ROLLESTON TO BRAIN, CHANGING IMAGES OF THE ADDICT AND ADDICTION] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016232133/http://www.drugtext.org/Addiction/changing-images-of-the-addict-and-addiction.html |date=2012-10-16 }}</ref><ref name="beje1">[{{Cite web |url=http://www.nilsbejerot.se/atgarder.pdf |title=Nils Bejerot & Jonas Hartelius Missbruk och motåtgärder, 1984] |access-date=2008-04-14 |archive-date=2007-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010005203/http://www.nilsbejerot.se/atgarder.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.drugtext.org/Second-Brain-Report/drug-addiction-2.html |title=DRUG ADDICTION (2nd Brain Report) &#124; Second Brain Report |accessdate=2011-08-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927050525/http://www.drugtext.org/Second-Brain-Report/drug-addiction-2.html |archivedate=2011-09-27 }}</ref>

Lindesmith wrote his earlier books from close personal interviews with a very limited number of addicts, about 50, almost all of them victims of ''therapeutic use'' of drugs when they were in health care for other reasons. Bejerot agreed with Lindesmith that these ''therapeutic addicts'' could be treated as personal health problems. These addicts were often ashamed of their drug abuse and the risk that they should introduce others in drug addiction was low. Bejerot claimed that persons from other, much larger, groups of drug addicts often were those that introduced others in their habit to use drugs (Bejerot studied this issue in his doctor thesis about persons who injected amphetamine). Bejerot claimed that the liberal drug laws that Lindesmith recommended – neglecting smaller amounts of illegal drugs for personal use etc. – therefore would open the doors for a much larger drug ''epidemic''. Then, the society will rebound with much more restrictive laws (compare with the [[War on drugs]]).<ref name= "beje1"/><ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.nilsbejerot.se/samhallet.pdf |title=Nils Bejerot:Narkotikafrågan och samhället, Stockholm, 1967,1969] |access-date=2010-05-06 |archive-date=2007-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225918/http://www.nilsbejerot.se/samhallet.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Lindesmith was born in [[Clinton Falls Township, Steele County, Minnesota|Clinton Falls Township, Steele County]], Minnesota, and gained an early fluency in [[German language|German]] from his German-born mother. He attended public school in nearby [[Owatonna, Minnesota|Owatonna]], Minnesota, where he graduated from high school in 1923. He graduated from [[Carleton College]] in 1927 and received an M.A. in education from [[Columbia University]] in 1931. Lindesmith taught school before entering the [[University of Chicago]], where he received his Ph.D. in 1937, writing his dissertation under the direction of Herbert Blumer. In the development of his dissertation, Lindesmith applied the tenets of symbolic interactionism, communicated to him from Blumer before that perspective even had its present name. He was a close colleague of Edwin Sutherland, who chaired the Department of Sociology at Indiana until his death in 1950 and collaborated with luminaries in symbolic interaction such as [[Anselm Strauss]], Howard Becker, and Edwin Lemert. Lindesmith's teaching career at [[Indiana University (Bloomington)|Indiana University]] spanned forty years from 1936 to 1976. He became University Professor of Sociology there in 1965. He was president of the [[Society for the Study of Social Problems]], 1959–1960.<ref>Information in this section was drawn from [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_1AaddjrJkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=#PPR11,M1 Karl Schuessler, "Dedication to Alfred R. Lindesmith, 1905–1991," in Harold Traver and Mark S. Gaylord (eds.), ''Drugs, the Law and the State'', Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1992, pp. xi-xiv.] {{ISBN |1-56000-082-1}}; [http://www.rootsweb.com Rootsweb.com]; [http://people.mnhs.org/bci/Search.cfm?bhcp=1 the Birth Certificates Index of the Minnesota Historical Society]; the 1910 U.S. Census; and the web sites of the [http://www.owatonnaalumni.com/Class%20Lists/1923.htm Owatonna Alumni Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704062952/http://www.owatonnaalumni.com/Class%20Lists/1923.htm |date=2010-07-04 }} and the [http://sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/31/pageid/69 Society for the Study of Social Problems].</ref>

Lindesmith married Gertrude Louise Augusta Wollaeger (1907–1985) in 1930. They had one daughter, Karen Lindesmith. He died in [[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]], Indiana.

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