{"id":1430,"date":"2023-03-04T17:18:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T22:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/?p=1430"},"modified":"2023-03-04T17:18:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T22:18:31","slug":"toonder-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/2023\/03\/toonder-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Toonder Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garcia\u2019s <\/span>The Pastoral Clinic: <\/span><\/i>Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande<\/span><\/i> provides a fascinating look into the lifestyle and challenges faced by people in New Mexico, tracing complicated histories of heroin addiction, detox resources, overdoses, and structural violence. Methodologically, the author describes her own experiences working as a detoxification attendant in a drug detoxification clinic in Espa\u00f1ola Valley. I found it interesting that she sought out this job to obtain an intimate relationships with her subjects, facing the harsh realities of this occupation for herself. Since other attendants only needed to pass an exam on prescription medications – without official training – there was a low barrier to access this way (2).<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, when recalling her own experiences in this area, she says how she \u201cwould speak of New Mexico\u2019s distinctive beauty, never of the deep suffering that I knew existed there\u201d and eventually realizing how physical landscape and systematic addiction is inextricable – each with \u201cits own processes of sedimentation\u201d (6). This sentiment was particularly powerful to me, as I am currently in an Environmental Humanities class where we explore similar topics with regard to how ecological terrain can propagate narratives of \u201cnature,\u201d human destruction, and generational significance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s book describes a particular instance of \u201cself-discharge\u201d from clinics whereas some detox patients are unable to complete the process to eliminate drug dependence. She gives the example of John, who had apparently \u201c<\/span>gotten over the hardest stretch of heroin detox\u201d and motivated himself toward progress with the threat of going to prison despite ultimately \u201cself-discharging\u201d and supposedly relapsing (4). The author asks \u201cwere there other, perhaps deeper dynamics of loss and longing during our walk that contributed to his relapse? How would I be able to begin to understand the motivations, force, and meaning of his \u201cself-discharge\u201d?\u201d (4). The very presence of syringes in the natural environment poses a threat to getting and remaining sober because of the reminder it serves.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garcia\u2019s The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande provides a fascinating look into the lifestyle and challenges faced by people in New Mexico, tracing complicated histories of heroin addiction, detox resources, overdoses, and structural violence. Methodologically, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/researchmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}