Your Own Personal Illness: Interpretation through the Spiritual Malady in Alcoholics Anonymous
Some Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members conceive of the fundamental problem they share as a “spiritual malady.” Based on fieldwork among three AA groups in Nova Scotia, Canada, this article advances an ethnographic description of the concept. Through a close examination of how the spiritual malady wa...
1. VerfasserIn: | |
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Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Veröffentlicht: |
Wiley-Blackwell
2022
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In: |
Ethos
Jahr: 2022, Band: 50, Heft: 1, Seiten: 90-107 |
weitere Schlagwörter: | B
private and public symbols
B Addiction B Selfhood B Alcoholics Anonymous |
Online Zugang: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Zusammenfassung: | Some Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members conceive of the fundamental problem they share as a “spiritual malady.” Based on fieldwork among three AA groups in Nova Scotia, Canada, this article advances an ethnographic description of the concept. Through a close examination of how the spiritual malady was interpreted by my interlocutors, I propose that the concept creates a cultural framework for the articulation of subjectivities and the interpretation of psychologies. I argue that it exists through a reciprocity of private and public meanings that are more the product of interactions between AA members than the learning and repetition of a formal ideology. This analysis becomes a means of exploring the agency of AA members as producers of meaningful representations of the challenges they feel they hold in common. |
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ISSN: | 1548-1352 |
Enthält: | Enthalten in: Ethos
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/etho.12330 |