Trajectories of change

The paper is a socio-historical analysis of the emergence of "addictology" based on the trajectory of its two main founding fathers. By deciphering the social constellations within which these individuals have evolved over a period of almost thirty years, it seeks to resituate the work of construction and legitimation of the cognitive and institutional territory of addictology. The success of this medical discipline at the end of the 1990s triggers a deep reshuffling of the fight against alcohol and drug addiction. This change is essentially made possible by the multiplicity of positions occupied by these two actors, who succeed in connecting specific subfields of the medical field and health administrations. Through the trajectory(ies) of these entrepreneurs of the addictological cause, it sheds light on the long-term transformations of medicine and public action (emergence of the neurosciences and behavioral cognitivism, development of public health, etc.).