Petersen Margit Anne, Nørgaard Lotte Stig, Traulsen Janine M
Section for Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
Cult Med Psychiatry. 2015 Dec;39(4):665-79. doi: 10.1007/s11013-015-9457-4.
This article presents ethnographic data on the use of prescription stimulants for enhancement purposes by university students in New York City. The study shows that students find stimulants a helpful tool in preventing procrastination, particularly in relation to feeling disinterested, overloaded, or insecure. Using stimulants, students seek pleasure in the study situation, for example, to get rid of unpleasant states of mind or intensify an already existing excitement. The article illustrates the notion that enhancement strategies do not only concern productivity in the quantitative sense of bettering results, performances, and opportunities. Students also measure their own success in terms of the qualitative experience of working hard. The article further argues that taking an ethnographic approach facilitates the study of norms in the making, as students experience moral uncertainty-not because they improve study skills and results-but because they enhance the study experience, making work fun. The article thereby seeks to nuance simplistic neoliberal ideas of personhood.
本文展示了关于纽约市大学生将处方兴奋剂用于提升目的的人种志数据。研究表明，学生们发现兴奋剂是防止拖延的有用工具，尤其是在面对兴趣缺乏、任务过载或不安全感时。通过使用兴奋剂，学生们在学习情境中寻求愉悦，例如摆脱不愉快的心境或强化已有的兴奋感。本文阐明了这样一种观念，即提升策略不仅关乎在提高成绩、表现和机会等量化意义上的生产力。学生们还根据努力学习的质性体验来衡量自己的成功。本文进一步指出，采用人种志方法有助于研究正在形成的规范，因为学生们经历了道德上的不确定性——并非因为他们提高了学习技能和成绩，而是因为他们提升了学习体验，让学习变得有趣。因此，本文旨在细化关于人格的简单化新自由主义观念。
