The ideologies of despair: A symbolic interpretation of punks and skinheads' usage of barbiturates

A. Burr

Social Science & Medicine, 1984, vol. 19, issue 9, 929-938

Abstract: In this paper a symbolic approach will be used to explain the high rate of barbiturate misuse among two modern youth movements namely punks and skinheads. It will be argued that punks and skinheads are youth social protest movements which have channelled their social protest through subcultural 'style' and symbolism. Neither group has developed an articulate coherent philosophy at the self-conscious level, rather both groups express their 'style' symbolically by dress, attitudes and behaviour. Both movements are working class in ethic, but whilst punks embody a total alienation from and rejection of conventional society, the skinheads identify with a militant working class ethic. Like many people in modern society, both groups have turned to bodily symbolism as a means of expressing themselves and their position in society. The punks and skinheads interviewed came from extremely disrupted and delinquent backgrounds which may be a general tendency amongst members of these movements. It is suggested that as a result of many of their members' disrupted backgrounds, these groups have developed negative and disturbed attitudes in their ideologies which they express symbolically through the medium of their bodies in a number of ways, including through the use of drugs. Barbiturates are amongst the most self-destructive and negative of drugs and bodily behaviour induced by them provides those punks and skinheads who use drugs with an ideal vehicle for symbolically expressing their frustration and discontent.

Date: 1984
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