Addiction and Neuroanthropology: A review of Daniel Lende

4/5/2016

by Paige Ridley

Daniel Lende focuses chapter thirteen on addiction and how it relates to neuroanthropology. An addiction is defined as having cravings, desires and urges but addiction can also lead to very extreme measures causing problematic situations for both the individual as well as members of their immediate friend and family circles. Lende hones in on the very core of addiction; compulsive desires and the repetitive use of drug habits.

Lende’s purpose of this chapter is to begin to understand how addiction effects an individual’s neurological process within their own cultural niche. Compulsive involvement not only leads to destructiveness but it also is directly “defined by the neurocultural dynamics of desire and habit” (Pg. 340).Lende takes an ethnographical approach as he noted that addiction is sought out to be a problem that is associated with involvement. Addiction is often thought about as feeding one’s pleasure but as Lende continues his research on addictions he finds this not to be as accurate.
Addiction cannot be summed up in a simple definition as it is very complex in its own right. Addiction does not only affect a certain area of the brain but travels through the brain’s neural circuit disrupting motions, memories and choices of individuals which in turn creates a social complexity. Addiction changes the way that individuals perceive themselves and how their actions mirror their thoughts. Addiction runs a certain path starting with the “basal parts of the brain” that regulate body activation, continues “through the limbic circuits” that control emotions and process information that is within our cultural environments finally reaching its destination at the “frontal cortices that perform higher-order cognition and control” (Pg.342).

Substance abuse interferes with many aspects in life including abandonment of family and social obligations such as jobs that were in fact very prominent before substance abuse began to take a toll. Families are constantly being ripped apart all because of an addiction. Substance abuse alters ones capability to make informed decisions that allow individuals to control their behavior.

Incentive Salience is defined by Robinson and Berridge as being distinguishable, it encompasses declarative goals and has explicit expectations of future outcomes which in turn are controlled by the cortical circuits of the brain. Incentive salience is used to describe an urge for something that is later turned into a sudden realization that they need to fulfill their desires at that very instance. Incentive salience is not the sole component of addiction but it does in fact play a big role. It is important to note that salience drives addictions that turn into repetitive addiction behaviors. Salience cues a form of motivation and is rewarded when the action is complete as the body is content for a moment in time.

Lende’s study takes place in Colombia where he works with adolescents and tries to understand their motives behind their addiction. Many adolescents feel that their family is against their every move so they turn to drugs as an outlet. This outlet allows them to associate with others who feel the very same way and it creates a bond of acceptance. When the individual feels they are accepted they long to feel that way again and are very anxious for the next appointed time. Once addicted that is all they can think about. Their motives get them through the day with the idea that they will reward themselves with a chosen substance. Addictions allow individuals to feel in control of their environments even when they are not. Salience causes one to seek out a place where one feels important for who they are.

Addictions are habits that become routine. Habits like addictions are caused by internal motivations. They are goal oriented with a short term future. Addiction behaviors are linked to the ventral and dorsal striatum. Once the researchers began to understand the linkage between the ventral and dorsal striatum it highlighted the actions that the brain performs again and again. One must place themselves in the thought processes of an addict to fully understand the motives and drives behind doing so.

Part of the ethnographic research ties back in the idea of having brains in the wild as conducting such an experiment in the laboratory would change the outcome of the data. The drug addicts need to be in their own environments for proper documentation. The results of this study portray that “social interaction among young users were actually one of the main motivators and rewards for people with deep involvement in that setting” (Pg. 355).
I find this article very interesting but very relatable simultaneously. Involvement is a key factor when trying to find one’s place within a given group. A key factor of involvement is being with like-minded individuals who have the same aspirations in life. Coming from a high school with several drug addicts this particular article stood out and made me question whether or not I made these individuals feel as if they were valued. Should I have included them more?

In one of the other readings last week about PTSD it talked about preventing it before it ever happened. Is there a way to reach out to young kids letting them know they are not alone and that there are other alternatives besides drugs which they can turn to?

18 Comments

Myra

4/5/2016 06:44:58 pm

I think this chapter does a good job of illustrating the ongoing problem of how to treat drug addicts. More often than not it seems they are seen as criminals or lowlifes that should be punished. I really liked how this chapter laid out how addiction works in the brain, and in relation to incentive salience and behaviors. Once the brain becomes accustomed to the rush of dopamine it wants more and more, and as pointed out by Lende, the addict will do more and more to get that euphoric feeling the drug provides. I believe that this should be the main focus in any kind of judicial or medical setting relating to addiction. In addition to the obvious fact that addiction reshapes the brain and how it works, incentive salience can be shaped by an individual’s past and present states and environment. It seems that Lende is saying that it’s not just the addict’s own habits and behaviors that have an effect on salience, but their environment and the individual’s experiences. The implications of this are that each addict’s brain functions in a different way to reinforce their habits. I think this is important to keep in mind when deciding a course of action to take in each case of addiction. Rather than put them in prison or give a court-ordered treatment plan, it might be worthwhile to consider individualized treatment plans and ensure an informed consent of the addict in question.

Paige Ridley

4/26/2016 09:43:47 pm

Myra,
I completely agree with you, the environment and experiences which an individual is placed in can truly shape their mind set. It is also important to treat individuals on a 1-1 bases to make sure they are receiving the type of medical attention that they need. Everyone does in fact react differently to different types of treatment. This was a very valid point that you brought up. Looking back I realize I should have talked more about the environment and how that environment can cause stress to a given individual.

Myra

5/4/2016 02:56:45 pm

I still stand by what I said about having individualized treatment plans for addicts. However, I think it could also be beneficial to study more about the prevention of using in the first place. This chapter talked about how teenage drug users wanted to get high in order to escape everyday life, or help them cope with family problems. Perhaps if there were a way to provide incentive to focus on school or family counseling it could cut down on teen addiction rates.

Amanda Oldani

4/6/2016 07:53:26 am

I enjoyed reading this chapter because it made me look deeper into an issue that is often seen in very black and white terms. I also thought using an ethnographic approach was very helpful and provided interesting insight. I like that Lende pushes the understanding of addiction to involve more complex factors, such as incentive salience, environmental cues, social context, and stress. I agree with Myra’s point, that individual experiences are important and should be considered before making any sort of judgment. The context and environment people live in shouldn’t be ignored. I have heard that many recovering addicts struggle if they stay in the same friend group, doing basically the same activities they did before they stopped using.

I also found the portion on stress to be really interesting. Stress can increase habitual behavior, and “automatic responses can lead to maladaptive behavior because the habit may not match the behavior appropriate to the situation or because the individual may not be able to set aside a habitual response in favor of pursuing a long-term goal” (Lende, p. 355). I think this can help people understand and appreciate the mindset that people who struggle with addiction face; long-term goals are not necessarily salient during stressful times, and habits that are ingrained become a way to try to manage stress.

Amanda Oldani

4/27/2016 07:53:46 am

I agree with how posts are saying that this issue is much more complex and involves many factors. As Larry says, it involves much more than the chemical dependence; the social scene and how the behavior is portrayed can change someone's attitude. I also liked how in class, we discussed how it it more about the journey towards the drug, not necessarily the end reward. The transition between activities is a very important factor, and the anticipation mounts. I think it is very perceptive that the transition becomes the cue for wanting. Addiction can be seen in almost every aspect of a day, even to the minute details like transitions.

Mirjam Holleman

4/6/2016 08:09:43 am

Is addiction a compulsive desire, a repetitive habit, a biological effect of withdrawal and tolerance (needing more and more to get the same effect), a learned behavior, an activation of the brain’s reward system, or an alternative and often more accessible and salient arena for (social) rewards when all forces seem to be against one’s succeeding in the dominant cultural system?

Answer: all of the above (and then some). And none of the above alone, independently of the others.

That is my summary of Lende's chapter.

Mirjam

4/6/2016 06:19:48 pm

Second response:
Or, is it a ‘lapse of agency?’ Stromberg (2012) defines the sense of agency as the understanding that the things you do or the “actions you initiate” are linked to your goals (p. 317). In other words, the sense of deliberation; that you know why you do the things you do, and it’s in accordance with your “project” (p. 316). Why, then, do people take up smoking or seek out drugs? Are they really acting as agents, or “creatures pursuing goals” (p.317) in that moment? That moment when you decide to take a cigarette can be described as a ‘lapse in agency.’ You yourself chose to pick up that cigarette, but that decision likely occurred in a ‘lapse of agency’ and was not you actively pursue your goals or project, reflecting on your decision or options and deciding this would be a smart thing to do. How do lapses of agency occur? Stromberg describes them (at least when used to, partially, account for/explain tobacco usage) as fundamentally a social phenomenon. When one becomes engrossed in “collective excitement” or the effervescence of a group, one can feel as though one is being steered along by the life of the group. A lapse of agency can occur. It’s you who’s making the decisions, deciding to have another beer or smoke, but it’s not really you, the agent, the “creature pursuing goals” (looking back, you may not recall drinking or smoking so much, or why you apparently decided to do so). Similarly, our human tendency for ‘imitation’, or to do what everyone else (or the most popular person) is doing can be described as a lapse in agency. Likewise, ‘pretend play,’ or the desire to act out cultural models (if you will) or images of a ‘tough man’ (the Marlboro man) or a ‘sexy woman,’ for example, may lead one to act in ways that compromise being a “creature pursuing a goal.” On the one hand, this ‘lapse of agency’ feels very much like being in control (did you not choose to emulate the ‘Marlboro man’ and does it not give you a sense of power to look all sexy with your cigarette?) yet “we surrendered so willingly to the conventions, as we do when we become caught up in a fiction, ritual, or sporting context […] the game or pretend play are lapses in the sense of agency no different in principle from those situations wherein one feels drawn into activities one does not value” (p. 327)

It makes one wonder though: are we ever really 'agents' - in the sense of everything we do being a deliberate action toward our goals or the values we stand for, or are we all just continuously stumbling through 'lapses in agency' (being social creatures, continually involved in social learning and imitation and trying to emulate cultural models or project certain images (even if it isn't healthy or 'rational' to do so)
Indeed, as my class notes suggest "a lapse in agency is a phenomenon that is not limited to the extraordinary or pathological"

Perhaps lapses in agency can explain substance use and abuse only to the extend that they explain all our normal or abnormal human (i.e. social) behavior.

Larry Monocello

4/6/2016 09:30:28 am

This chapter highlighted the fact that the social environment is an important component of addictions of all kinds, not just drug addictions. The social environment is a huge factor in relapse-- a person who is clean from rehab may go back to doing drugs because the environment which encouraged their use in the first place is left unchanged.

Larry Monocello

4/26/2016 04:45:05 pm

In class, we ended up talking a lot about peoples' own experience with addiction, especially in regard to cigarettes. We talked about how the addiction was so much more than just a need for nicotine: there were the social aspect and the "doing something with your hands" aspect that stuck out to me the most. In particular, it made me think of how the show Friends treated smoking -- Chandler was a smoker, and everyone considered it disgusting. Rachel also thought it was foul, and it was especially related to her father's admonitions against it (he was a doctor). Yet, she was still tempted to smoke when she realized her boss and co-worker, who were smokers, were making deals and plans, and having informal meetings, on their smoke breaks. This also had real-life corollaries. For example, among many businesses, smokers get more breaks. This therefore incentivizes people to start smoking, so that they can take breaks from work as well.

Catherine Lindsay Manson

4/6/2016 09:40:05 am

I thought Lende's chapter on drug addiction and the interactions of incentive salience was very interesting. Lende gives a brief comparison in how addiction is viewed in North America and how that differs from that in Colombia. I think that the cultural view on addiction in Colombia is very interesting because many societies do view addiction as a moral deficiency or disease, where as Colombians view addiction as a want for more stimulus. Although I thought that this article was strictly about the addiction in Colombia, the conclusion appears to make the statement that addiction is a matter of neuroanthropology, which muddles my understanding of the purpose of this chapter.

Overall, I thought that this was a well written chapter (with the one confusion) Lende gets slightly technical when speaking about the different functions of the brain and where the incentive salience takes place in the brain; which I mostly understood. One of the more interesting parts of the article to me was the idea that incentive salience (and in turn addiction) does not happen or affect just one part of the brain, but is actually interwoven throughout the brain.

Catherine Manson

4/27/2016 09:08:51 am

I felt that I understood this before we discussed it in class and realized that there were key points that I seemingly missed or failed to grasp. For instance, when speaking about "lack of agency" I understood the ideas of control versus lack of control when making decisions or actions. What I failed to grasp before class that the use of drugs in Columbia is not a way of losing one's agency, but a way of asserting it. The use of drugs by young teenagers shows that they do not want to have the responsibilities of the average teenager, so they use substances that inhibit them from doing so.
I also found interesting in our class discussion of this chapter was the idea that imitation also plays a role in the substance abuse. The big question and confusion here was that even though the action is influenced by another person, you do not lack the agency to do or not do drugs. This is opposite of the popular belief in many western societies in that they believe that once you have the peer pressure or are using the drug, you have lost your agency or control.

Michelle Bird

4/6/2016 10:25:13 am

I thought this chapter was very interesting in light of the way the US treats addiction. Seeing it as a combination of several factors, and introducing the concept of incentive salience combined with the intense controlling power that habit can have over a person's life gives a user more options for recovery than the current process of detox, implementation of other drugs to control withdrawal, and therapy. Knowing that the addiction means different things to different people makes the process of treating addiction more complex, but it also makes it more personal for the user struggling to achieve a normal, healthy lifestyle - which is the most important part of any transformation: the person must want the change more than they want the drug, or the association they have with it, and be willing to sacrifice all of the benefits they once found in the drug use in favor of finding that acceptance or comfort or joy somewhere else.

I found myself asking the same question, only mine was more directed towards some of my family members - alcoholism runs pretty deep on my mom's side, and we've had to distance ourselves from the worst of them and basically never see any of them anymore, because they always want something and things never seem to improve for them, and it hurts more to see someone you love choose a drug over you when you've always tried to be there for them, and given love and support and acceptance that still doesn't produce a favorable result (we're Mexican, and I can totally understand how they think - drugs are a vice like anything else, but it's only really a problem if they start neglecting their responsibilities - especially family - in lieu of their pursuit. However, I can't help but wonder if he might have turned out differently if we had tried to include him more in our family plans and whatnot - but, knowing what I know about him personally, and how long I've watched him struggle with his addiction and how it has become more important to him than his family (not just us, but his kids too), I can't imagine that there is any action someone else could take that might change him. He has to decide that something other than alcohol will validate him, and I appreciated this study for showing how a person might be able to understand why they even started in the first place, and what exactly the addiction means to them.

Michelle Bird 2nd post

5/5/2016 08:43:54 pm

I loved this class discussion because we really talked about why someone might begin and remain using a drug despite the mental, physical, and social consequences, and what the “addiction” actually embodies – a safe place, a form of play, social inclusion amongst other individuals who are relatable, an escape from reality that they feel – often desperately – that they need. I understood after discussion that all of these things come together to create a habit, which if often harder to break than what we think of as “addiction”. I’ve spent much of my life around addicts, and in most cases recovery and change seem totally impossible, but following class discussion, I realized that there are many different ways to approach addiction and its consequences, and that patience and taking a different perspective on it and the person struggling with it can make quite a bit of difference.

Molly Jaworski

4/6/2016 10:26:21 am

In this chapter, Lende emphasizes the complexity of addiction. Addiction is not something that can be understood and something purely biological where dopamine is to blame. Cultural, biological, and psychological factors all play a role in the processes that encompass addiction. Lende emphasizes incentive salience- the ‘wanting’ attribute produced by the brain to reward- as a key component in addiction. Addicts, like the Columbian adolescents in Lende’s ethnography, explain their feelings and emotions of their addiction as ‘wanting more and more’. Cues for reward are part of the addict experience in that certain cues allocate a person’s attention towards the reward (the fix) and the lack of cues trigger stimulus for ‘wanting’ the absent reward. But incentive salience ‘cannot be localized’ (ebook location 7442). There is no one pathway or neurological circuit by which the incentive salience of addiction runs.
Lende also explains that the repetitive nature of drug use becomes a part of the addiction its self. Drug use becomes a learned sequence of behavior with a goal for that behavior which in turn creates a habit. A habit is mediated by the dorsal striatum and as long as the dorsal striatum is intact drug seeking or ‘wanting’ reappears in addicts. Addicts never fully recover from their addiction, the want is still intact because the dorsal striatum is intact.

Molly Jaworski

5/5/2016 09:21:39 am

After discussing addiction in class, I still agree that neuroanthopology provides a valid stance on how the 'disease' should be assessed. Taking into account not only the biological factors but the psychological and cultural factors as well, can help us understand addiction in a more well rounded view point. All of these interdisciplinary areas of study can provide important insight into addiction and could open doorways to new methods of combating the condition.

Jessica muzzo 2nd post

5/3/2016 10:33:25 pm

When studying addiction, I think it is important to take into account the way addiction is defined and viewed within a culture. Lends observed a phenomenon of desiring drugs at the expense of family and work. It is highly understated that "addicts" must chose one or the other because of general intolerance towards drug use. This creates a division between the "real" world and the drug world. When a person chooses to get high, even for the first time, family members and friends may (out of culturally appropriate concern or scorn) push the drug user away. This reinforces the typical precursing feelings of being left out or rejected, and gives drug users further cause to bond and unite. As a drug user continues to seek the drug experience, and consequently other drug users, they effectively alter the environment in which their mind operates. Actions that were once inexcusable may take on different meaning, since individuals in essence place themselves in a completely new culture.

I think of it this way. If watching television were shameful, and viewers had to hide themselves and block themselves from reality in order to get a glimpse, a division would arise between "real life" and their underground television viewing. As a person comes to identify with the negative label of "television watcher", he or she may refrain from reaching out to non-watchers, as they may have little to connect on. Television is just as habit forming and interfering as any other addiction, and has been proven to alter reaction times, but our cultural values are such that allow people to indulge in this desire without consequence.

I would like to see research investigating my theory.

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6/22/2023 12:34:04 pm

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Addiction and Neuroanthropology: A review of Daniel Lende

by Paige Ridley

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