Diane Schaefer The Razor’s Edge: Narcotics and the Embodiment of Trauma is a detailed account of how structural inequalities influence individualism which can subsequently impact relationships, communities, and societies. The short essay is primarily concerned with the domination of the author’s ascribed status on the discourses she opted to take in life, which ultimately dictated her to a life of deviance, mental instability, and drug abuse. To understand these sociological forces that formulate socially structured trauma, this essay will implement various theories of multiple famous philosophers and sociologists including, George Herbert Mead, Herbert Spencer, and Emile Durkheim.
Not everyone in society is provided the equal opportunity to achieve their goals. From a macro-level, if society was structured more fundamentally equal, there would be less necessity for individuals to commit deviant acts. There are many individuals who yearn and have adopted the goal of society, however, many lack means to attain them, leading them to pursue illegal means to reach the goal. Anomie theory, coined by Emile Durkheim, suggests that competition for success creates conflict and crime. More so, it’s often social conditions and not purely personality that account for crime. “The enemy” of ascribed social inequalities “is created within a social structure of hierarchies and inequalities that harms many by putting the sustaining and enriching resources of life into the hands of the few,” (151) thus, maintaining that individuals that are born into lower socio-economics encounter many obstacles that thwart their chances of success. This dictates who is committing crimes, and this particular strain theory explains why a majority of crimes are lower-class crime. This is suggested by the many individuals that must “work hard in order to survive physically,” (142) which can lead them to a consistent attempt to strive for a betterment of life, utilizing both legitimate and illegitimate approaches. The multifaceted approaches maintain that our unequal society and the inequity in opportunities is what leads to deviance. Schaefer believes that her “life has been about the embodiment of socially structured trauma,” (151) indicating that although she was a very intelligent girl, “in college [she] achieved academic success and honors,” she had ultimately, “been socialized in chaos, and internal turmoil, the product of traumas, dominated [her] existence” (145).
Another theory that could be utilized to address the issue of how people learn deviance is through “differential association,” a term coined by Edwin Sutherland. According to this theory, the environment plays an extensive role in dictating which norms people learn to violate. Schaefer’s “latchkey status and the financial fears that drove [her] parents made [her] vulnerable to abuse at home and to trauma from predators outside,” (143) furthermore, this would be indicative that nurture, especially during childhood, plays a fundamental role on how individuals act and react to various situations in their life. The pain she suffered in adolescence including sexual assault, physical and verbal abuse had, “driven [her] to the pleasures harbored in a syringe,” (139) thus, individuals learn criminal behavior, like any other behavior, from interactions, especially within intimate groups— such as parents, family, friends, and teachers. Most behaviors, especially deviant behaviors, are not innately found, but developed during adolescence, Schaefer was not “born craving narcotics,” however her background, “created a need so vast that [she] would resort to just about anything to quench it” (140).
Structurally, “conflict theory,” a theory by Karl Marx, argues that society is best understood as a competition rather than a complex system striving for social equilibrium. That mandates that society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources and therefore only select individuals will be successful in fulfilling their goals. Broader social structures and organizations, such as criminal justice, government, and jail, reflect the competition for resources in their inherent inequalities; some individuals and organizations have more resources and subsequently use those resources to achieve higher positions of power. This is suggestive of the structure of social mobility, and the difficulties the more disadvantaged are faced are expressed by Schaefer when she said “soul murder violated my human dignity at a time when I Was struggling in college to reconcile my right to exist in a world I was taught I could not have” (146). While she received the grades to attend college, she didn’t feel like she belonged because of the environment she was brought up in and because neither of her parents attending college. The uncertainty Schaefer and “the turbulence [she] had experienced led [her] to the streets” (144). According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo. Because inheritance, education and social capital are transmitted through the family structure, wealthy families are able to keep their privileged social position for their members, while individuals from poor families are denied similar status. Although social mobility is possible, even when individuals are offered the opportunity for a change, the difference in lifestyle is often deeply unsettling and the vast deviation between expectations of the varied lifestyles cause the individual to retrogress back into their original lifestyle. In the case of Schaefer, when she dated a boy who was kind and treated her well, the stark dissimilarity of life with him caused her to be uncomfortable and ultimately run “back to the streets, where [she] embraced the familiarity of troubled friends and activities” (145).
On a micro-level, role theory posits that human behavior is fundamentally guided by expectations from both by the individual and also the expectations from other people. In regards to community, individuals tend to create relations with likeminded others. In Schaefer’s case, the community she immersed herself in, especially in regards to her living community, were people who “shared a common hurt… [They] shared the positive along with the negative and formed a family of mutual aid that was maintained by drugs” (148). When Schaefer found a roommate and a romantic partner, Bill, her “life expanded enormously through companionship with this heroin user from the middle class,” (149) although the memories they shared were mainly maintained by drugs, her role as the girlfriend and roommate mandated that she attempted to live by Bill’s standards. Expectations often hinder an individuals ability to live fully independently, regardless of who sets the standards. While Schaefer enjoyed the time she spent with Bill she “felt trapped in my present self-destructive and meaningless existence,” (150) but enjoyed the familiarity of the troublesome lifestyle that was instilled in her since birth.
In conclusion, while The Razor’s Edge: Narcotics and the Embodiment of Trauma is about how there is more to crime than individuals just being intentionally malicious, it also is suggestive that human behavior, more specifically deviance, can be caused by social structures, interactions, and environment that can be best analyzed through various sociological theories. By viewing it through various sociological lenses, it’s seen that not only is it about the criminal justice system, but also delves into the concepts of self-perception, social institutions, and conditioning.