Therapeutic Entanglemente: a Study on the (Re)Constitution of the Identity of Drug Users

Abstract

This paper discusses the experiences
of drug user in the following institutions located in
the metropolian area of Curitiba, in the state of Pa-
raná: the Santo Daime church Céu da Nova Vida,
the therapeutic community Água da Vida, and an
Alcoholics Anonymous group. Based on ethnogra-
phic experience, I point out that these sites involve
a series of characteristics, representations, and socia-
bilities that set in course the construction of a ‘che-
mical dependent identity’ and, through it, the more
or less successful ‘internalization of a habitus’. As a
result of this process, I suggest that these experien-
ces tend to metamorphosis, defining ways of being
in the world made possible by the engagement of
the subjects with what are understood as therapeu-
tic projects.