Aesthetic mediation and lateral agency: Rethinking trauma and drug consumption in ‘crisis ordinariness’
International Journal of Drug Policy August 21, 2026 Renae Fomiatti, Helen Keane, Gemma Nourse et al.
Trauma has a become a dominant causal explanation in psychological and public health accounts of drug use, with drug consumption typically framed as a coping response or form of self-medication. Drawing on Lauren Berlant's work (2008, 2011), particularly their concepts of genre, crisis ordinariness and lateral agency, we examine the affective and political conventions of trauma as a genre for...