Hari's Labeling Theory

Hari’s theory of addiction both support and refute Durkheim’s theory of society and also supports the labeling theory. His theory of addiction is based on how addicts are punished and made to suffer by society. They are stigmatized, labelled, and shamed to the point where they cannot be functioning members of society. This is unfortunate because addiction has little to do with the chemical substance, but it is about the adaptation to the addicts’ environment. Because humans are social creatures, they have an innate requirement to bond with others. When there is a lack of these bonds, people become addicts – bonding to anything that will provide a source of relief from the lack of social connections. According to Hari, addiction is based on

Labeling theory stems from symbolic interactionism and does not focus on the deviant behavior, but rather how society reacts to that behavior. The deviants then take in how others labeled them and accept the label as being true. The addicts behave the way that others with their label should behave. People utilize social controls to attempt to regulate the deviant’s thoughts and behaviors that can limit deviance. This includes labeling people as addicts, shooting dirty looks, or holding interventions to point out their deviant behavior. As soon as society labels the addicts as addicts, they are branded with that label. Hari argues that this is punishing, stigmatizing, and shaming them – making the addictive outbreak in Portugal a lot worse than before. These labels put barriers between the addicts and the society, which prevents the addicts from reconnecting with society. Because they cannot reconnect with society, they do not feel like they have a purpose in life – lacking in connections and bonds with individuals. Because society believes that addicts are people who cannot voluntarily control their desires, they are looked down upon and stigmatized by society. They are branded as people who cannot be normal, functioning members of society. This leads them to latch onto drugs and alcohol rather than bonding with others, making the situation a lot worse. Hari ends his talk by stating that “the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.” Here, he is saying that we should not shame people for not being sober, but rather tell the addicts that we value their existence for who they