Addictology: a neo-discipline and its homogeneity. Historical conditions of its emergence in France

At the very end of the 20th century, a new discipline emerged in France, addictology. University seized the subject and quite a few lessons have been proposed, of various inspirations, addressed to various audiences. Thus was born a practitioner of a new style, the addictologist. In mirror, a new patient has emerged, the “addict”, recent avatar of both the alcoholic, drug addict, and behavioral addict. Its conceptual homogeneity both clinically and socially continues to be discussed. Professionals are wondering about its definitions and differential diagnoses from reading grids of different horizons. Patients themselves sometimes struggle, as stereotypes are fixed in the subject and different contexts, to see what may be common between a user of crack, a smoker and a “cyberaddict”. In the field of addictology, more than elsewhere, there is the problem of the statutes allocated to the “addict”, the ontological, clinical, ethical, legal statuses that can overlap. For clarification, this text will propose a historical perspective, where we will first see how the nineteenth century will meet the conditions of a problematization leading to the gradual emergence of the image of the alcoholic and the addict. Then in the twentieth century, will come the texts of law, including the law of December 31, 1970 which will logically raise the question of a specific system of care (nature, actors and theoretical references).