Papers by Juliana Spyropoulos
In reference to Durkheim's structural functionalist framing, this paper will argue that illicit d... more In reference to Durkheim's structural functionalist framing, this paper will argue that illicit drug taking destabilizes dominant societal arrangements, producing divergent states of mind or ways of thinking which threaten illusion of universality generated by dominant paradigms. Such disruptions of seemingly natural patterns of thought signals a moral outcry to punish and condition the drug user though social and judicial constraint, producing a pathological 1effect upon the individual and society. This paper will clarify how Durkheim deems a behavior to be deviant and will utilize the illicit use of drugs as a comprehensible example to illuminate why it is that deviance functions to signal a societal reaction to oppress and condition such outliers. Illicit drug use will be linked to Durkheim's understanding of suicide-specifically egotistic and anomic suicide. Due to the fine line between drug over dose and drug induced suicide, it is of sociological interest to examine the social drivers and consequences which abet such antisocial behavior. Finally, this paper will apply Durkheim's understanding of state law and its punitive function towards drug use as a criminal offence to examine why this punitive function is pathological in its effect. According to Durkheim, individual conduct is oriented by norms and sets of expectations which have been set outside and prior to the individual (hhhhh). Any behavior which is outside socially prescribed modes of acting, thinking and feeling can be defined as deviant to the extrent to which they disrupt and reveal prescribed modes of conduct as fluid social constructions. Durkheim terms these prescribed modes of conduct as social facts. Deviant behavior, such as the use of psycho-active drugs, reveal the existence of social facts by inducing patterns of thought and intepretations of reality which diverge from the general shared experience. This divergence from normative thought and emotional experience reveals the multitude of avenues in which 1 Pathological is defined as social actions which produce reactions opposite to what was intended. Drug laws can be considered pathological to the extent to which they encourage drug use over prevention.
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Papers by Juliana Spyropoulos