Professor Rachel Cooper: ‘Disorder, deviance, dissent and the limits of medical science’

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Abstract: How can we distinguish between behaviour that is indicative of disorder, and instances where people choose to act in ways that are odd or disturbing? Medics often claim authority in such matters. For example, the US National Institute on Drug Abuse claims that addiction is known to be a brain disease, and that thinking of drug abuse in moral terms is ‘antiquated and inaccurate’. In this paper I will argue that such claims to medical authority are unjustified, and that when it comes to distinguishing between disorder, deviance and dissent, medical facts will be inadequate.