Addiction & agency
Can we hold addicts responsible without blame?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Pickard argues that clinic-style responsibility without blame treats people as capable of change without the stigma of condemnation.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Pickard’s clinic-style ‘responsibility without blame’ treats people as capable of change without condemnation.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Discoveries this paper informs or conflicts with
- Addiction can leave the capacity for choice intact and still not deserve blame
This paper informs this development.
- If addiction changes the brain, that is what learning does too
This paper informs this development.
Inspect source passages
Can we hold addicts responsible without blame?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
What is stigma here?
Stigma is a mark of social disgrace. It carries condemnation and ostracization by society and, typically, creates corresponding shame and isolation on the
Moral model of addiction?
choice, even for addicts. Second, it adopts a critical moral stance against this choice. Addicts are considered people of bad character with antisocial val
Key findings
Stigma marks social disgrace and blocks treatment. In the clinic, holding people to account can motivate change because capacity for choice remains. Responsibility without blame is the stance she found in that setting. She also notes that alcohol is a drug, and that safer supply plus education could reduce overdose risk among inexperienced users.
Methodology
Drawing on work in a therapeutic community, Pickard distinguishes the moral model (addicts as bad characters) from a clinical stance that still treats people as having choice and control. She uses a reasons-responsive idea of responsibility and separates it from blame.
Limitations
This is not a new RCT of therapeutic communities. Cross-cultural stigma citations are from others. The clinical stance may not transfer easily to criminal courts.
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