Bootnecks and Boundaries
摘要
This chapter explores the subcultural practices of several former soldiers who engage in psychedelic drug use after military service. It draws on life course theory, social identity, and narrative criminology to examine how participants’ strong internalised military identities are transformed as they transition to civilian life. The chapter reveals how psychedelic drug use becomes a site for the renegotiation of past military values and behaviours, with themes such as the impact of institutional release, shifts in drug ‘career’, influence of cultural narratives (e.g. The Psychedelic Marine), and the role of mainstream discourse on psychedelic therapy for PTSD being of critical importance. The findings underscore how military identity is not erased but reoriented through story-driven, drug taking practices emerging in novel subcultural contexts.