Transcript Screening and Brief Alcohol Interventions: Money, Power

Mette Irmgard Snertingdal
Evaluation of a brief intervention training
program
The Norwegian health
authorities practice a zero
tolerance to alcohol during
pregnancy.
Control from the inside or the outside?
 ”Society cannot exist
unless a controlling
power upon will and
appetite be placed
somewhere, and the less
of it there is within, the
more there must be
without” (Edmund Burk
1791)
The questions are:
 What types of
governance strategies
does brief alcohol
interventions such as MI
represent?
 And what are the social
consequences of this
governance strategy?
Medicalization:
“Defines behavior as a
medical problem or illness
and mandating or
licensing the medical
profession to provide some
type of treatment for it.”
(Conrad 1975: 12 )
Governmentality:
is a combination of the
words govern and
mentality, and is
frequently defined as the
“art of government” or
governing.
General versus individual social control
measures.
Alcohol policies primary
importance “should be
attached to general social
control measures rather
than to selected subgroups
of the population which
often, on very flimsy
grounds, are labeled
alcoholics” (Bruun, 1971, p.
36).
MI “Honor the person’s autonomy, draw forth the inherent desire
to change, and take a collaborative—rather than confrontational—
approach.” Bill Miller
The four corner stones of MI
 Empathy
 Develop discrepancy
 Roll with resistance
 Support self -efficacy
What type of power is at work here?
What type of social cotrol is at work here?
«Self control from the inside or control by another person
from the outside?»
Governmentality
 Technologies of power are
the resources used to help
develop good behavior
with the idea of creating
positive attitudes and
attributes while attempting
to avoid negative ones.
 Technologies of self
revolve around the
capacity of individuals to
control and therefore
govern themselves.
Consequences?
 «Blurs the line between
statly power and
individual power»
Consequences?
«assumpsjons of moral
neutrality, domination by
experts, individualization
of social problems,
depoliticization of
behavior, dislocation of
responsibilities, using
powerful medical
technologies»
Consequences?
 «Individualization
refers to a process
by which
individuals
increasingly
became the cause
and are held
accountable for
their successes and
their failures»
Consequences?
Stigmatization and the
creation of guilt?
Question.
 Does pregnant females whom drink a glass of wine
every Friday afternoon with their husband really need
therapy?
Thank you very much for
your attetion!