'I just want to be normal': An analysis of discourses of normality among recovering heroin users

• Published in: Health (London, England : 1997) Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 174 - 190
• Main Authors: Nettleton, Sarah, Neale, Joanne, Pickering, Lucy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE 01.03.2013; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: Addiction; Adult; Cultural Characteristics; Discourse Analysis; Drug Abuse; Drug addiction; Drug Users - psychology; England; Female; Foucault, Michel; Governance; Governmentality; Health; Heroin; Heroin Dependence - psychology; Heroin Dependence - rehabilitation; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Middle Aged; Narration; Resistance; Social behaviour; Social theory; Social Values; Young Adult; England; United Kingdom > UK; Discourse analysis; governmentality; normality; Foucault; drug misuse

Research that has explored the lives of men and women recovering from heroin addiction has reported that users often claim that they 'just want to be normal'. Working within a Foucauldian tradition, we argue in this article that the notions of 'governmentality' and the 'norm...