Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Ben Cousins and the ‘double life’: exploring citizenship and the voluntarity/compulsivity binary through the experiences of a ‘drug addicted’ elite athlete

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Seear, K.
    Fraser, Suzanne
    Date
    2010
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Seear, K. and Fraser, S. 2010. Ben Cousins and the ‘double life’: exploring citizenship and the voluntarity/compulsivity binary through the experiences of a ‘drug addicted’ elite athlete. Critical Public Health. 20: pp. 439-452.
    Source Title
    Critical Public Health
    ISSN
    0958-1596
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48400
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Contemporary neo-liberal public health discourse is increasingly drawn to the language of 'addiction'. Disease models of addiction are mobilised to account for an expanding array of problematised activities, from the familiar smoking and drinking to newer candidates, such as overeating and gambling. Most models of addiction, including disease models, are underpinned by the idea that, unlike proper citizens of neo-liberal democracies, 'addicts' lack free will or agency. This lack can be attributed to any number of problems or dysfunctions: genetic, neurological, social or moral. One high-profile case, which challenges this approach to addiction, involves the famous Australian Rules football player Ben Cousins, one of Australia's most recognised and accomplished athletes. A highly decorated player in the Australian Football League (AFL), Cousins has publicly declared himself a 'drug addict'. In this article, we present an abridged version of an interview we conducted with Cousins around the end of his first season back in the sport (late 2009) following suspension by the AFL for 'bringing the game into disrepute'. In the interview, we explore Cousins' own understanding of drug 'addiction' and its relation to its apparent antithesis sporting prowess. We also examine the ramifications of the ostensible paradox between drug 'addiction' and sporting accomplishment for understandings of 'addiction' as compulsivity and lack of free will. Drawing on the work of the cultural studies theorist Sedgwick (1993), we identify in Cousins' own understandings of his drug 'addiction' a resistance to the absolute polarisation of voluntarity and compulsivity underpinning some of the most influential versions of the disease model of addiction. We discuss the implications of this polarisation, and of forms of resistance to it, for public health policies regarding drug addiction, and for the intersection of drug use and citizenship. Thinking through Sedgwick's alternative notion of 'habit', we reconsider concepts of addiction, briefly drawing in other phenomena also increasingly framed as 'epidemics of the will'.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • The 'sorry addict': Ben Cousins and the construction of drug use and addiction in elite sport
      Seear, K.; Fraser, Suzanne (2010)
      Australian Football League (AFL) player Ben Cousins is one of the most highly acclaimed and recognised athletes in Australia. Followed closely in the media, his off-field activities are subject to as much attention and ...
    • The place of volition in addiction: Differing approaches and their implications for policy and service provision
      Karasaki, M.; Fraser, Suzanne; Moore, David; Dietze, P. (2013)
      Introduction: ‘Addiction’ is an ambiguous concept. Its meaning, and how it is used in drug policy and treatment, depends on how it is conceptualised. While the ‘disease’ model of addiction is prevalent in Australia, ...
    • Diffracting addicting binaries: An analysis of personal accounts of alcohol and other drug ‘addiction’
      Pienaar, Kiran; Moore, David; Fraser, Suzanne; Kokanovic, R.; Treloar, C.; Dilkes-Frayne, E. (2016)
      Associated with social and individual harm, loss of control and destructive behaviour, addiction is widely considered to be a major social problem. Most models of addiction, including the influential disease model, rely ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.