My dissertation investigates what diagnosing addiction as a psychiatric illness means to those who are most intimately involved: medical professionals who diagnose and communities prescribed and "instituted" by them. Based on 12 months of ethnographic research at the National Center for Psychiatric Research (NCNP), in a maverick neighborhood clinic, and in community-run rehabilitation centers in western Tokyo prefecture in Japan, I analyze the intertwining of the legal and the medical in the production of cures, contestations, and forms of expert intervention. My goal is to make legible the practices that shape psychiatric and legal realities surrounding mental health by exploring how medical sciences and social aid policies shape and are shaped by interpersonal care. Medical expertise and cultural processes surrounding iterations of addiction in Japan incite critical historical, medical, and political configurations to emerge, which provide key insights into rethinking global policy for criminal, pathological, and scientific definitions mental health.
