09 December 2016

We can learn and study. Thus the society inserts conventional programs to our heads and installs them step by step, if we resort to the programming jargon. In this context, we talked about certain deviant patterns that shape us at the macrolevel. But the socialization does have a microlevel. It means our response to certain experiences. We shall say, first of all that most of such response is “automated”. For instance, going to work we know in advance the way to it, when the bus comes, how to pay the fare and many other things we really think about, but not much unless there’s a violation of the routine, such as traffic jams, abnormal weather conditions and alike.

The experience of the self as drunk

In this section we examine how Alison presents her engagement with alcohol as an experience of flux, oscillation and instability. We introduce the analysis with an extract which presents some of the main features of Alison’s engagement with alcohol. It also vividly illustrates how Alison turns to metaphors to describe her experience, a feature frequently repeated during the interview:

Some big wave, you know, you just get caught with it, that’s what it used to be like, this kind of like helpless feeling, just having to go and get drunk almost, you know, not even particularly wanting to, just feeling like there’s no other way when you are in that situation.