Narcotics Anonymous

The production of standards and subjectivity in Narcotics Anonymous by Mille Bygballe Keis

The empirical basis of this project is an investigation of Narcotics Anonymous (NA), which focuses on the constitutions of standards that promote a certain understanding of addiction and imply certain ways of dealing with the problems of addiction. This investigation also functions as a basis for an exploration of a more general theoretical question concerning how these standards contribute to the formation of subjectivity through participation in NA. By exploring how standards are embedded in concrete practices, it becomes possible to follow the oscillations between the abstract and the concrete, and it opens up the analysis to questions regarding the practical management of the abstract ideals that the standards incarnate.