A psychosocial critique of the social representation of drugs associated with power and control mechanisms

Abstract

The drugs concept represents a sociolinguistic construct whose use has been mystified by the action power of discourse and mechanisms of power and control, which contribute to the social regulation of its meanings and social representations. This psychosociological approach aims to analyze the consequences deriving from this ideological discourse and from the meanings of social representations about drugs and their users. We review the meanings and their differential statute and, given languages power to construct realities, we take the view that the drugs concept needs to be deconstructed and replaced by another concept, psychoactive substance, which has not yet been subject to mystification processes. Finally, we offer a comprehensive etiologic explication of drugs use, based on Fromms fear of freedom hypothesis.