Poisons of Civilization, Remnants of Capitalism, or Jewish Disease? Drug Addiction in Russian and German Medical Texts from the 1879s to the 1930s

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2010 in the subject Jewish Studies, grade: A, Central European University Budapest, language: English, abstract: This thesis looks at Russian and German medical texts related to recreational drugs that were written in the period that witnessed the emergence of drug addiction as a social problem (late 19th - early 20th centuries). An important part of the argument is the analysis and critique of primary sources that I undertake in order to investigate various theories, images, and practices related to drug addiction.
This work shows how drug addiction was eventually constructed as a social problem related to modernity, capitalism - and Jewishness. Drug addiction research appears to be one of the attractive fields for Jewish scientists, who used this opportunity to contemplate, negotiate, and re-define the new Jewish identity in a rapidly changing modern world. As evident from the analysis of the solutions proposed in medical texts and their influence on practical drug policy, medical science in both Russia and Germany (though with substantial variations due to political, cultural and scientific differences) played a major role in marginalizing and repressing drug addicts while rejecting other emerging alternatives.