Addictions: Epistemological Reflections Around Fields of Study and Disciplines

Addictions are a complex phenomenon. This complexity requires multiple looks. For this reason, experts have reached a great consensus on the need to make an interdisciplinary approach. The problem arises when trying to make interdiscipline operative in the understanding and treatment of addictions. The concept of discipline is often associated with a bureaucratic-administrative distinction, without thinking about it from an epistemic perspective. However, according to Kuhn, the importance of shaping the discipline in scientific practice gains importance. The concept of discipline is associated with a disciplinary matrix, which defines a scientific community requiring the existence of that scientific community. The disciplinary matrix is the way we see the world and act on it. The latter indicates that not only the understanding of the object is given by the disciplinary matrix, but also the intervention and application of treatments and therapies. The objectives of this contribution are (1) To inquire about the concept of discipline and the divisions of the sciences; (2) to show how discipline shapes a worldview from Kuhn’s works; and (3) to demonstrate that a different model of discipline organization is needed to achieve a truly interdisciplinary approach to an object such as addiction. For the latter, the idea of a collaborative program of the organization of disciplines is proposed as a response to the problems that arise around interdiscipline.