Anomie Theory and Addiction

In the broadest social contexts, drug use and abuse are social phenomena subject to the definition and reaction of society. How much drug use and abuse is there in society? How serious is the drug problem in society? Because there is no shortage of sources of information about drugs and addiction in society, answers are not difficult to come by. Or are they? 
There is wisdom in the claim of sociologists that social problems, including drug addiction, are socially constructed; as Robert Merton's theory of anomie explores. Anomie is best defined as "a breakdown in the cultural structure, occurring particularly when there is an acute disjunction between the cultural norms and goals and the socially structured capacities of members of the group to act in accord with them" (Winslow 1968, 1). 

The behavior of the addicted is challenging from many perspectives; it poses an obvious challenge to the person willing to quit but unable to do so; it is puzzling for those who want to find theoretical explanation for the rising and diffusion of these forms of self destructive habits; it is socially costly and not pleasant for many. Addiction introduces in consumption behavior the idea of habit as well that of deviance: therefore the development of norms, both at the social and the individual level, and the cognitive mechanism on which they rely on must be taken into account. The individual is not placed in the vacuum but he/she acts in specific context, within formal and informal rules, i.e., an institutional setting. Individual cognition takes place within this framework and perception plays a major role in the generation of actual models of behavior that may be quite different among individuals. That is why some people may believe to be not at risk of addiction; others may be unable to take into account future consequences; others, socialized in high consumption culture, get hooked not because their individual weakness of will but because they are involved in a collective action problem.