Nüchternheit: Zum Nicht-Trinken als Alltagspraxis und Gegenwartsphänomen

Abstract

In the context of new abstinence efforts (e.g. „Sober Curiosity“, „Mindful Drinking“, „Teetotalism“), experience and knowledge, scientific discourses and everyday understandings, medical, (popular) therapeutic and (wellness and lifestyle) economic narratives on alcohol consumption are intermingled. Sobriety is sometimes understood as a phase of (chronic) addiction, sometimes as a habit and competence that can be learned, then as a mindful and distinctive lifestyle in the context of social acceleration, or also positioned as – potentially feminist – resistance to the neoliberal consumer society. These developments point to cultural shifts in meaning that can contribute to the social normalization or revaluation of non-drinking as a lifestyle and to the intensified pathologization of alcohol consumption. The article argues that, in the context of these changes, empirical cultural studies should contribute anew to the discourse on alcohol consumption, which continues to be shaped by medical psychology. To this end, it opens up the perspective of understanding sobriety not as a form and goal of therapy for ‚unhealthy‘ alcohol consumption, but as an individually designed strategy and way of living – as an everyday practice. The article then contextualizes sobriety from a contemporary analytical perspective as a social ideal, a lifestyle and a growing social movement.