Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic and Historical Study of Therapeutic Communities

This project seeks to understand how history and institutions may affect the understanding of appropriate forms of therapy in specific times and places. By examining the historical, political, and cultural processes that give rise to particular therapies, the research will advance social scientific understanding of the historical production of therapeutics, particularly for addictive behaviors. The research is focused on the rise and spread of the therapeutic community movement. Therapeutic communities are mutual-aid communities where substance users and the homeless are sent to rehabilitate each other. No longer common in the United States, where bio-medical and pharmaceutical approaches are more common, therapeutic communities continue to spread in other parts of the world. The researcher asks why this is the case and what the effects are for caregivers, care receivers, and other stakeholders.

The research will be carried out in Puerto Rico by Columbia University anthropology doctoral researcher, Caroline Parker, supervised by Dr. Jennifer Hirsch. In Puerto Rico, which is both home to many therapeutic communities and a key source of their spread to other countries, this form of care comprises a crucial safety net for some of the island's most vulnerable populations. Puerto Rican therapeutic communities are usually peer-operated: program graduates perform essential caregiving duties as therapists, treatment leaders, and directors. The researcher will undertake archival research and oral history interviews to trace the historical growth of Puerto Rico's therapeutic communities from a single state-run program founded in the early 1960s to a decentralized network of over 150 mutual-aid collectives operating across the island. In addition to the historical component, she will conduct twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in two of the communities, collecting data through long-term participant observation and in-depth interviews. Finally, she will combine legal-policy research and key informant interviews to examine the specific institutions, state practices and laws that produce and sustain these forms of care.