Reading against the grain of vulnerability in addiction: Philosophical reflections on agency and vulnerability

Abstract

Addicted individuals are arguably a vulnerable population in health care and in society. Typically, this claim is based on views that consider drug use as the source of vulnerability, either as a cause for pathologies in the brain or as a target for societal regulation that results in harm for the users. In this article, I question the common conceptions that, first, the vulnerability in addiction actually traces back to drug use and, second, vulnerability in addiction necessarily undermines the addicted individual’s agency to a problematic degree. Insofar as drug use is considered to be the main source of vulnerability in addiction, the view of addicted individuals as vulnerable may be misplaced. I suggest that in certain contexts drug use can be regarded as a resource for one’s agency. However, questioning the polarization between autonomy (i.e., ‘full-blown’ agency) and vulnerability may undermine the view that addicted individuals are a vulnerable population that requires special measures.