Being limitless: A discursive analysis of online accounts of modafinil use

Book chapter


Hall, Matthew, Forshaw, Mark and Montgomery, Catharine 2020. Being limitless: A discursive analysis of online accounts of modafinil use. in: Palgrave Macmillan/ Springer.
AuthorsHall, Matthew, Forshaw, Mark and Montgomery, Catharine
Abstract

Modafinil is a prescription-only substance in the UK for the treatment of disorders such as narcolepsy. Soldiers have also used this substance as an alternative to amphetamines in situations where they face long periods of sleep deprivation. More recently, the substance has become increasingly popular for enhancing cognitive performance e.g. students taking exams. Modafinil is widely available on the Internet and is reported to carry a wide range of health risks and side effects if not taken with medical supervision. Given the tension between health risk and enhanced cognitive performance, how people talk about modafinil use becomes an important question. Drawing on discourse analysis we focus in particular on how respondents work up accounts of their modafinil use as credible, authentic, and legitimate; a community of practice. Our analysis has clear implications for engaging (mis)use in health promotion interventions.

KeywordsModafinil; cognitive enhancement; cognitive performance; nootropics; health; substance misuse
Year2020
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan/ Springer
ISBN9811567700
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/625400
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
hdl:10545/625400
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Publication dates31 Oct 2020
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Deposited23 Nov 2020, 16:54
Accepted01 Aug 2020
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ContributorsArden University, University of Derby and Liverpool John Moores University
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