ABSTRACT
In the majority of cases, abstinence had lasted between five and twenty-four years whereas six informants, who were originally treated in the 1970s were still addicted, providing a comparison group. Recently, questions of legitimation have been raised as to whether it is actually possible for researchers to capture lived experience directly, or whether such experience is created in the text written by the researcher. This can be seen to arise partly from the debate over possibility of obtaining an objective view of experiences which are subjective in character, that is, between a positivist and a constructivist perspective. For some informants, becoming less beholden to their fierce superegos allowed them to accept what they saw as an improvement in facing challenges, rather than ‘all or nothing’ stance of either achieving success or experiencing failure. The essence of the enantiodromia is a turning away from exclusive dependence upon inanimate substances towards relationship with people, with all the difficulties and rewards that entails.
