 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (October 2024) |
Alfred R. Lindesmith | |
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| Born | August 3, 1905 Clinton Falls Township, Steele County, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | February 14, 1991 (aged 85) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Carleton College, Columbia University, University of Chicago |
| Known for | Advocacy of a medical approach to drug addiction. |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sociology, Criminology |
| Institutions | Indiana University |
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Alfred Ray Lindesmith (August 3, 1905 – February 14, 1991) was an Indiana University professor of sociology. He was among the early scholars providing a rigorous and thoughtful account of the nature of addiction. He was a critic of legal prohibitions against addictive drugs, arguing that such prohibitions had adverse societal effects. Lindesmith's work in drug policy and addiction at Indiana U. was an element of progressivism, along with the landmark work of Alfred Kinsey and his associates at The Kinsey Institute, under the supervision of IU President Herman Wells .[1]
Lindesmith's interest in drugs began at the University of Chicago, where he was trained in social psychology by Herbert Blumer and Edwin Sutherland, earning his doctorate in 1937. His education there was a mixture of the methodological and theoretical, a balance that would later appear in his drug studies. The work at Chicago involved research with interactionist theory, including the research of Chicago's Herbert Blumer, emphasizing the idea of self-concept in human interaction.
- ^ Keys, David Patrick; Galliher, John F. (January 1, 2000). Confronting the Drug Control Establishment: Alfred Lindesmith as a Public Intellectual. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-4393-4.