Addiction and Spiritual Transformation

Sremac‘s research explores the relationship between addiction and spiritual transformation. More specifically he examines how recovering drug addicts employ testimonies of conversion and addiction to develop and sustain a sense of personal unity and create meaning from varied experiences in life. Drawing on 31 original autobiographies of recovering substance users he analyzes conversion and addiction testimonies in two European contexts (Serbia and The Netherlands including a sample of persons who had migrated to the Netherlands) that allow to consider both modes in which previous frames of reference and self-understanding are undermined and modes in which new ones are attained. The study therefore focuses on the role of testimonial in reconstructing a viable narrative of the self, accounting for their trauma, addiction, and conversion and embedding in a particular social and spiritual context.